IN KEEPING with the times, the provincial government of Pampanga updated its old revenue code to be apace with the realities of present rates.
Likewise, after public consultation called by the presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Atty. Geld Guttrie P. Aquino, Mabalacat City also updated its local revenue code reckoned from its conversion into a city in 2012. The rates were benign and not shocking, gradual and not drastic and are foiested on the residents to generate income for the city's various services.
The legal bases are reasonable and justified, said Atty. Geld and are aimed at filling the gap of the transition from the municipality status to that of a component city.
The new rate impositions have been published in Sun Star Pampanga and city officials Franco Alejo S. Madlangbayan, City Administrator and City Accountant Oscar Deang, Jr., even went on air at RW 95.1 to further explain and expound on the tax escalation in an interview by City Information Officer Jay Pelayo IV.
The old tax rates were applicable to then municipality of Mabalacat which became a city in 2012. The new rates therefore apply to its now being a city which are low compared to other cities.
Deang, Jr., explained that the city needed revenues to pay for its operations and expanded services cities usually dispense.
He clarified that the tax adjustments are aligned with the revenues of the taxpayers and their ability to pay.
All of these adjustments, DEang said, will be used for the projects and services of the city government. Among these projects are the purchase of the lot and construction of the building of a new city hall at the three hectare site along MacArthur Highway, Barangay Mabiga and beside SM Hypermarket, building of a health and wellness center, the putting up of a state-of-the-art command center, a slaughterhouse and the improvement of the city's public market in Barangay San Francisco.
Besides, provisions of the Local Government Code explicitly allow the updating of the city's local revenue code. Public consultations were conducted by the Sangguniang Panlungsod chaired by the City Vice Mayor/Presiding Officer Atty. Geld Guttrie P. Aquino.