Friday, January 11, 2008 CTO embarks on P40M modernization program By Grace L. Plata
THE modernized assessment and collection system of real property taxes in the city is now up and running.
City Treasurer Rodrigo Riola in Thursday's I-Speak forum at the City Hall said that the City Treasurer's Office (CTO) has embarked on a P40 million computerization scheme for its real property tax department dubbed as "Davao City Real Property Tax Computerization Project" in July last year.
Programmers and data encoders were employed by the city for six months to convert paper documents into electronic files.
"It is a sophisticated program that would allow us to immediately see if the previous taxes had been duly paid," Riola said.
With the computerization program, the proliferation of fake receipts would be eradicated, he said.
For the convenience of taxpayers, transactions can now be faster and with ease at any CTO offices - main or in the districts.
The old system requires taxpayers to transact only in one of the CTO offices. The new system however is now networked and online. If a taxpayer originally transacts in a district office and goes to the main office to make transactions, he only has to bring documents confirming that the taxes have been paid there and he can make new transactions in another office.
"It is an effective and efficient control measure," Riola said. Erroneous entries will be detected immediately.
Riola said the program would also give updates on revenues every 30 minutes.
CTO hopes the computerization project would provide the city more revenues.
