THE City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) is optimistic that Davao City will be “debt-free in the next two years”.
CTO head Erwin Alparaque said the city currently has additional funds since it has no pending additional loans secured from other banks or institutions. However, he was not able to provide the remaining balance of the city government.
It was previously reported that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio targets the city government to be debt-free by 2022.
“The City of Davao is also working on being debt-free in the next two years. Despite this recognition, we are trying our hardest to ensure that we identify and reach those who are poor and take them out of poverty. Only then we can truly be happy about being a rich city,” Duterte-Carpio said after the city was recognized as ninth richest city in the country with total assets worth P13.18 billion, according to a report by the Commission on Audit (COA).
According to a report from Byaheng DO30, a three-year initiative of the mayor’s doable and meaningful projects, is targeting for a 94.29-percent paid loans.
Alparaque said this improvement also resulted to an increase of annual budget of P8.85 billion this year from P7.5 billion in 2018.
Meanwhile, he said that the city is expecting a gross collection of P9.88 billion this year.
“As of April 2019, estimated actual collections already reached 53 percent,” he said. (RGL)