THE City Treasurer’s Office said it has strengthened its online payment platform so that taxpayers need not go to its offices anymore.
Davao City Treasurer Atty. Lawrence Bantiding, during the I-Speak media forum on Thursday at the Davao City Hall Conference room, encouraged taxpayers, especially those who are due for the 4th quarter business tax payments, to use the online platform.
Bantiding said that the online payment for taxes was launched in 2020 for the convenience of taxpayers. The payments can be done through the Land Bank of the Philippines Link.Biz Portal and Development Bank of the Philippines and its affiliates, and also e-wallet payments such as Paymaya and Gcash.
The payment portal can be accessed via: https://www.davaocity.gov.ph/services/online-payments/
“Using these gateways there is no need na muadto paka sa City Treasurer’s Office to pay your business taxes (Using these gateways, there is no need for you to go to the City Treasurer’s Office anymore to pay your business taxes),” he said.
He added that the online payment system had been expanded to include miscellaneous fees, aside from business tax. Among the miscellaneous fees are payments for transfer tax, fees on weight and measure, Special Mayor’s Permit, Professional Tax Receipt (PTR), Slaughterhouse Fees, and regulatory fees for different city offices.
He said that as of August 2022, a total of 1,192 taxpayers have already used the online payment system for the payment of business taxes and 37 of these are for miscellaneous. To expand and cater to more clientele, they are now developing a system for real property tax payments online.
“We are hoping that this coming October or early November kaning payment nato sa online real property tax kay naa'y clamor ang atong real property owners na pwede maka-online pud ana (We are hoping that this coming October or early November we will have the online payment for the real property because we there is a clamor from the real property owners to also have this online),” Bantiding said.
Bantiding said though that while the online payment is made available, the main office and the 11 district offices with offices are still open to receive payments.
While there is this push for online transactions, Bantiding said that he is grateful to Dabawenyos for paying their taxes, which is why despite the pandemic, an increase in tax collection was recorded as of August 2022.
In terms of tax collection, CTO already collected P9, 769, 949, 458.17 as of August 2022, which is 77.67 percent of the P12,576,116,634 target for 2022. This amount is also 26.75 percent higher compared to the collection in 2021 for the same period. Business taxes constitute the chunk of the collection with a total of P113,586,446.94 as of August 2022.
He reminded taxpayers to pay on time to avoid penalties, especially in the quarterly tax collections, as it may result in interest charges.
Bantiding also said that their office is confident about reaching the 2022 tax collection target.
“Naa nalang ta'y 23 percent nga bunuon, in the remaining four months of this year, and we are confident that we will reach 100 percent. Last year we have a surplus in our collection (We will only have to collect the remaining 23 percent in the remaining four months of this year and we are confident that we will reach 100 percent. Last year we have a surplus in our collection.),” he said. CIO