QC tax hike deferment approved on 3rd reading

THE QUEZON CITY Council on Nov. 26 approved on third and final reading a proposal to suspend a planned increase in real property fair market values (FMV) until after 2019, council Majority Floor Leader Councilor Franz S. Pumaren said in a mobile phone message when asked for an update.
“We need to have it signed (by Mayor Herbert Constantine M. Bautista), so no more delays and no corrections…” Mr. Pumaren said of proposed Ordinance No. 20CC-497.
The proponents on Oct. 26 sought the suspension of the implementation of Ordinance No. SP-2556, Series of 2016, which raises real property fair market values in the city after the Supreme Court on Sept. 18 lifted the April 2017 temporary restraining order on its implementation.
They want the 1996 schedule of FMVs to be the basis for real property tax collection next year.
They cited multiyear-high inflation rates that averaged 5.1% in the 10 months to October, which exceeded the 2-4% full year target range of the central bank for 2018, as the reason behind the proposed suspension of the realty tax hike.
The 2016 ordinance increases the FMVs of residential, commercial and industrial real properties by 400-733.33%, consequently raising tax payable by real property owners by 39-131%. New assessment rates, however, were cut to five percent for residential and 14% for commercial and industrial lands in order to temper the FMV increases.
In a statement on Nov. 27, Mr. Pumaren noted that “[o]ur economic managers have agreed that the priority right now is to reduce, and not add to, the burden of taxpayers and consumers.”
“We’re following suit in the interest of Quezon City residents.”
The city’s FMVs were last adjusted in December 1995 despite the requirement of Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991, to adjust the schedule every three years.
The city government projects an additional P700-million revenues in the first year of FMV hike implementation. Latest date from the Finance department’s Bureau of Local Government Finance showed that Quezon City contributed the most to total Metro Manila revenues in 2017, accounting for P15.161 billion of the National Capital Region’s P77.099-billion colledtions.
Quezon City’s biggest tax source in 2017 was business tax with P9.204 billion followed by real property tax with P3.431 billion. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas