THE Quezon City government expects to achieve a 2016 revenue collection target of P16.1 billion, boosted by taxes from large malls, TV networks and factories, according to an official.
In an interview, Basilia Pacis, acting city treasurer, said the city eyes another P1-billion surplus in December not only to be able to maintain and sustain its status as the country’s richest city, but also to be able to provide better services to the residents.
“We have the biggest establishments and corporations that pay huge taxes all throughout these years,” Pacis told The Standard.
“Giant television networks, the SM Prime Holdings and large malls are located here, and they pay taxes religiously,” she said.
Pacis said doing business in Quezon City is now easy since the city government has already addressed red tape “a long time ago.”
With the availability of an online payment option for taxpayers of real estate and business taxes, the city government has projected a P16.1-billion tax target, Pacis said.
“Just last April, Mayor Herbert Bautista and the Land Bank of the Philippines opened an online payment. Taxpayers may now pay their taxes anytime, anywhere,” she noted.
The city government ended 2015 with a P15.66-billion revenue collection, which was P1.159 billion more than its target.
At least P7.56 billion came from business tax payments, which grew by P902.54 million or 13.56 percent from its level in 2014, while P3.75 billion were collected from real property taxes, indicating a growth rate of 7.6 percent from that of the previous year.
Pacis replaced former city treasurer Edgar Villanueva when the Office of the Ombudsman ordered his dismissal from government service and perpetual disqualification over the imposition and assessment of real property taxes against the Manila Seedling Bank Foundation Inc. in 2011.
According to Pacis, the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Local Government enforced the Ombudsman’s order on March 4.
She said Quezon City, not Makati City, is still the richest city since “we have not incurred a single liability.”