Wednesday, December 27, 2006 More properties up for auction
KORONADAL CITY -- The local government of South Cotabato will again hold a public auction of delinquent real properties in February next year in a bid to raise P1 million in revenues.
Alegria Beltran, provincial treasurer, said the February auction sale would be the second since August and since such civil remedy was imposed by the Local Government Code in 1991.
At least 35 real properties with recorded tax delinquencies of P30,000 and above were put up for auction in August but only eight were opened to the public after the owners of the 27 other properties opted to settle their obligations before the auction day.
The auctioned properties were from the municipalities of Banga, Norala, Sto. Niño, Tantangan and T'boli.
The local government's collections for the properties that were subjected for auction sale reached P338,051 as of last month.
Beltran said they scheduled another auction sale due to its positive impact in terms of awareness among real property owners of their tax obligations.
She said it prompted most of the listed delinquent real property owners to either settle pending dues or make some arrangements with the provincial treasurer's office.
Beltran advised property owners with unpaid tax dues to pay them as soon as possible so they would not be included in the delinquent taxpayers list.
"This time, we will auction properties regardless of how much their delinquencies are," she said.
She advised owners of properties with recorded tax delinquencies to visit their office and avail themselves of the local government's compromise offer of full 25 percent discount if they decide to settle their obligations immediately. (Allen V. Estabillo)
