BACOLOD City – The City of Bacolod collected P692 million in real property taxes in the year 2020 amid limitations posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said on Wednesday that he is grateful Bacolodnons continued to remit their tax payments in 2020 despite lockdowns and intermittent closure of the Land Tax Division of the City Treasurer’s Office whose several employees were infected by the virus.
“This act of remitting their payments despite COVID-19 shows the civic spirit of Bacolodnons, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts,” the mayor said.
In a report to Leonardia, acting city treasurer Arlene Memoria said the previous year’s collection was only P1.9 million lower than the collected payments in 2019.
The mayor admitted the city government was expecting a bigger decrease because of the pandemic, but falling short by only P1.9 million clearly shows the people of Bacolod understand how important their land tax payments were in helping the local government.
“We hope they will continue to remit their payments in 2021 and even to settle their tax arrears, if any, so that we will have more funds in our fight against COVID-19 this year and quickly recover the momentum in our economic thrusts once it is behind us,” he added.
Earlier, Leonardia said last year’s total business registration of 23,545 was also way beyond expectation amid the health crisis.
In 2020, registration decreased by only 8 percent from the 25,637 total business registrants the previous year when the projection was actually a drop of 20 percent to 30 percent.
With the fairly high initial turnout of business registration in January this year, Leonardia said the figure indicates business confidence in the city remains high despite the effects of the COVID-19. (PNA)
