BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO – The Commission on Audit (COA) has urged the Lemery municipal treasurer’s office to intensify his revenue collections from local sources.
State auditors issued the call after the treasurer’s office failed to collect the target revenue of P19.269 million last year.
“The municipality was not able to maximize its power to levy taxes and intensify revenue collections, thus projected revenue collections from local sources totaling to P19.269 million was not realized…which could have been used to augment the resources needed in the implementation of its programs and projects,” COA auditors said in their annual audit report for 2023.
Citing the summary of collections of the Lemery municipal treasurer’s office, the auditors noted that the office failed to collect his projected revenue from local sources totaling P19.269 million for 2023.
Of the P19.269 million target revenue, the office collected only P14.616 million, which resulted in an under-collection of P4.652 million or 24.1 percent.
Target collections for real property tax fees were not achieved resulting in under-collection totaling P5.809 million. On the other hand, revenues for local business tax exceeded its target by P1.156 million or 61.3 percent.
COA auditors noted that such trend analysis of the real property tax collections for the three years from 2021 to 2023 showed a significant decrease in the current year.
The town’s real property tax collections had increased by P3.356 million or 44.1 percent from 2021 to 2022 but these dropped by P4.214 million or 38.4 percent in 2023.
The treasurer’s office explained that notices of delinquency were also sent to taxpayers every first quarter of each year. They are also continuously conducting “pulong-pulong” and public auctions to help increase collection and reach the target set.
The office attributed the low revenue collection for real property tax to the high local revenue performance target set by the Provincial Treasurer’s Office and incomplete information on the land owners’ current address to where the delinquency notices would be sent.
While COA recognized the efforts done by the town’s treasurer’s office, it said that collection efforts still need to be exerted to achieve the revenue targets, especially for the real property tax collection.
“Consequently, the municipality has not been able to maximize its power to levy taxes and intensify revenue collection which could have been used to augment the resources needed in the implementation of its programs and projects,” COA said.
State auditors urged the mayor to direct the town treasurer to communicate with the Provincial Treasurer’s Office and the Bureau of Local Government and Finance (BLGF) relative to setting revenue performance targets for the municipality.
The auditors said the treasurer’s and municipal assessor’s office must also update the records, including the current addresses of landowners in the Lemery to facilitate the sending of notices of delinquency.
The auditors further urged the municipal treasurer’s office to follow upon the review and approval of the Municipal Revenue Code by the BLGF to fast-track its implementation.
The auditors stressed that the office should also strictly enforce the collection of the delinquent real property taxes by conducting a more aggressive tax 61 campaign and implementing the remedies according to the provision of the Local Government Code./PN
