DBP, Metrobank sign property tax payment tieup

THE Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) said it tied up with Metrobank Card Corp. (MCC) in an electronic-payments venture to facilitate Taguig and Valenzuela real property tax payments.
In a statement sent to reporters on Friday, state-owned DBP said the tieup with MCC, a unit of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), hopes to boost tax collection in the two cities.
“Residents of Taguig City and Valenzuela City may opt to pay either in cash or using their Metrobank cards to settle their real property taxes on installment basis via the DBP point-of-sale terminals deployed in the said LGUs (local government units),” DBP President and Chief Executive Officer Cecilia C. Borromeo was quoted as saying in the statement.
She added that the DBP-MCC Real Property Tax Payment program hopes to demonstrate to LGUs a more efficient way of collecting real property taxes.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, Taguig and Valenzuela have estimated populations of 805,000 and 620,000, respectively. Taguig has more than 7,000 registered commerical and industrial establishments, while Valenzuela has over 15,000.
Ms. Borromeo said the project furthers DBP’s aim of helping build a financial payments infrastructure for the public sector.
“DBP is aiming to become known as the ‘Digital Bank of the Philippines’ in terms of providing seamless and innovative banking and payment solutions to the Filipino public,” she added.
Aside from the e-payment program, MCC will offer its cardholders a balance conversion facility that breaks up real property tax payments into monthly installments.
DBP booked a P2.76-billion net profit in the first half of the year, up 4% from a year earlier. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal
The state-owned lender was the eighth-largest commercial bank in the country in asset terms as of the end of June with P617.5 billion. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal