CAGAYAN de Oro is Northern Mindanao’s city with the highest collections from local resources in 2016 and in the second quarter of this year.
Joy Marjorie Manlegro, financial analyst of Department of Finance-Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), said these local resources or revenues of local government units are the real property tax, business tax, fees and charges, and economic enterprise.
But Manlegro said even though the city posted the highest collection in the region, it doesn't mean that the whole local sources of the city were collected.
"Naa man gud silay (They have their) category in every local sources, let’s say real property tax, naa na siyay corresponding target nga i-meet niya, so naay corresponding pud nga efficiency (they have corresponding taxes to meet). It doesn’t mean that the whole of local sources of Cagayan de Oro was collected. Depende sa target niya (It depends on their target)," Manlegro said.
As of the second quarter of this year, Cagayan de Oro has collected a total of P 1,187,051,824 out of the P 1,730,968,488 total annual target collections of local resources in the city.
"Na surpass na niya ang 50 percent, naa na sya sa 69 percent sa iyang
(They surpassed the 50 percent, they are already in the 69 percent of) collection out of the target given by BLGF," Manlegro said.
In 2016, Cagayan de Oro City had collected a total of P 1,812,367,750 out of the total annual target collection of P 1,783,922,129, surpassing the 100 percent of the target given by the BLGF.
Manlegro said having more collections means the businesses in the city is booming and can help the local government unit in establishing projects for the city.
"Ma-prioritize, matagaan niya og focus kay maka-afford man sila'g establish whatever projects nga nakahan-ay sa annual investment plan of the LGU (The local government unit can prioritize and give focus [in their projects] since they can afford to establish whatever projects in line with their annual investment plan)," Manlegro said.
She added that in order to increase the amount of city's collection, the local government unit will have to conduct a massive tax campaign.
"Ang LGU ang iyang dapat buhaton is massive tax campaign. Mag bill
gyud sya sa tanan individual concerning sa local taxes nga payments.
Magpadala nag silag statement of bills. Its either through media,
kanang sa social media pwede naman sya diha, ang uban sa newspaper
(The local government unit will have to conduct a massive tax campaign. They have to send bills to all individuals concerning the payments of local taxes. They will have to send statement of bills. It;s either through the media, in the social media, or in the newspapers)," Manlegro said, adding that the local government unit should publish a list of delinquent taxpayers.
Delinquent taxpayers are those who did not pay their taxes after the payment due date.
Manlegro also said the local government should focus on having higher collections in the real property tax (RPT).
"Kay usahay ang businesses kay come and go mana sya pero ang RPT stable gyud na sya, the most stable gyud na sya sa local resources (Sometimes, businesses come and go but the RPT is stable, it’s the most stable of all local resources)," she said.
Out of the four local resources of the city, business tax had the highest collection, according to the 2016 and second quarter data of BLGF.