No 500% property tax increase, buwis sa simbahan at informal settlers — QC Assessor

NAGBABALA sa publiko ang isang opisyal ng Que­zon City Office of the City Assessor na maging maingat sa maling impor­masyon na magkakaroon ng 500 percent increase sa real property tax at property tax ng mga simbahan at informal settler families (ISF) sa Quezon City.

“Definitely, there will not be an increase of 500% in the real property taxes,” ayon kay Quezon City Acting City Assessor Sherry Gonzalvo, kasunod ng maling ulat na tataas nang malaki ang real property tax (RPT) sa lungsod.

Ayon kay Gonzalvo, kasa­lukuyang nakasus­pende ang implementasyon ng ordinansa na magtataas ng fair market values o Ordinance No. 2556, alinsunod na rin sa desi­syon ng Quezon City Council. Dagdag ni Gonzal-vo, sa kabila ng pangangai-langang itaas ang fair mar-ket values sa Quezon City, sang-ayon siya sa hakbang ng sang­gunian na hindi muna ipatupad ang nasabing batas dahil na rin sa pagsipa ng presyo ng ilang bilihin.

“We are mandated eve-ry three years to revise our values under the local government code. We re-ceived a memorandum from the Commission on Audit telling us that we have to revise our fair market values since they have not been updated in 21 years. There’s also a DILG-DOF (Depart-ment of Interior and Local Government-Depart­ment of Finance) joint memorandum calling all local government units to revise their values,” paliwanag niya. “But I agree with the council because we were hit by consecutive increa­ses in prices of goods following TRAIN law. We should not be imple-menting this right now,” ani Gon­zalvo. Pinabulaanan din ng opisyal ang mga balitang ipapa­tupad din ang nasa­bing batas maging sa mga simbahan at informal set-tlers.

“They say the churches will be taxed. Definitely, churches are not taxable because they are exempted under the local government code,” paglilinaw niya.

“Definitely, there is also no tax on informal settlers. Hindi po apektado ang informal settlers sa mga tax natin. Unang-una, wala po silang binabayarang tax dahil wala naman po silang property o bahay na naka-deklara sa kanila so paano po sila magbabayad ng tax?” “You cannot give a 70% discount. Again, under the local government code, the maximum discount that can be given is 20% except if there is a calamity. There has not been a calamity so far in Quezon City, so it is against the law to give a 70% discount,” paglilinaw ni Gonzalvo.