CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – An ordinance granting tax amnesty or financial relief to real property taxpayers in Pampanga is certain of approval by the sangguniang panlalawigan here.
Vice Gov. Lilia G. Pineda herself gave the assurance, saying the measure seeks to ease the burden of hardpressed, if delinquent, taxpayers.
This came in the wake of earlier engagements of the SP with municipal and city treasurers and assessors on the proposed tax amnesty ordinance.
“We understand that the failure of many of our cabalen to pay on time is forced upon them by a number of factors, not the least of which are the calamities that befall the province. With delinquency, the tax interests pile up, making all the more difficult for them to pay,” she said.
Pineda said that under the ordinance delinquent payers of the real property tax (RPT) will only need to pay the basic tax, the payment of the accumulated surcharges, interests, and penalties rising from their unsettled RPT waived.
“I strongly urge them to take advantage of this tax relief grant,” she enthused.
To help in the facilitation of payment under the amnesty ordinance, Pineda eyed the posting of “BIR desks” in the municipalities to do the computation of basic taxes.
This, even as she noted that one way to enable the government to facilitate the collection of RPT is to excise, through legal process, the names of the deceased owners in the land titles.
“This is most problematic in the settling of inherited estates under joint ownership by living and deceased persons,” she said.
Pineda likewise reminded real property owners to pay their taxes before they avail themselves of the Voluntary Title Standardization Program of the Land Registration Authority.
This involves the upgrading of “Red” (manually-issued) land titles to “Blue” (e-Titles) issued by the LRA’s new computerized system which aims to: “maintain online information on titles that is current, complete and accurate; maintain the security and integrity of records by safeguarding these from tampering or destruction and deter substitution or insertion of questionable data, in paper or digital form; and provide a system of timely detection and identification of fake land titles which will assist in the identification of persons responsible therefore.”
Pineda has asked the help of media to help in the dissemination of information on the tax amnesty “to reach as many cabalens as possible, and urge as many taxpayers as possible to avail themselves of it.”
She said she herself would go on a radio tour with the officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and assessors.
