A SOFTWARE malfunction was experienced at the Cebu City Hall for more than a week last February, leading to several real property owners and taxpayers failing to pay their tax obligations.
The incident prompted the City to extend the deadline of the RPT payment for the first quarter of the year to April 5, 2024. The previous deadline was March 31.
The executive department requested for the extension of the deadline through a letter from City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) head Mare Vae Reyes dated Feb. 19 to Cebu City Councilor Noel Wenceslao, chairman of the committee on budget and finance.
Wenceslao then filed a resolution for the extension, which was approved by the City Council during its regular session on Wednesday, March 6.
The councilor, in his resolution, urged the council “to approve the extension of time for the payment... in order to compensate the lost time due to long weekend and/or to give reasonable and sufficient time to the taxpayers of the taxing jurisdiction of Cebu City to pay their taxes.”
Reyes, in her letter to Wenceslao, said the malfunction on their payment system started last Feb. 13.
Reyes told SunStar Cebu in a text message on Thursday, March 7, that the system was fixed last Feb. 22.
Not only was the payment system affected by the software malfunction last February, but it had also affected various lines of services in City Hall, said Reyes in her letter.
Another reason for the executive department’s request for extension was the observance of Holy Thursday (March 28) and Good Friday (March 29), which are non-working holidays.
She also said March 31 falls on a Sunday, which is a non-working day.
The RPT is one of the main sources of City Hall’s local revenue.
Since 2022, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has been pushing for the updating of the Real Property Tax Code of Cebu City.
While the City aimed to raise P50 billion for its 2023 annual budget, only P7.5 billion had been collected from various sources as of October 2023. / JJL