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South Cotabato pushes revision of revenue code

GENERAL SANTOS CITY - In a bid to raise its income, the provincial government of South Cotabato is pushing for the updating and revision of its revenue code.

Alvim Batol, acting head of the Provincial Treasurer’s Office, said Wednesday they are currently working on the proposed changes to the existing revenue ordinance, which was last amended in 2011.

He said they are targeting to submit the amendments to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan or provincial board before the end of the third quarter.

“We’re hoping that it will be approved and implemented by next year,” the official said in an interview.

Batol said the revision of the revenue code is among the strategies that they adopted to increase the local government’s income and eventually lessen its dependency on the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

In 2015, he said 81.44 percent of the provincial government’s income came from its IRA share from the national government.

He said they are working on reducing such figure to 80 percent by the end of the year and to 77 percent by 2017.

Out of the province’s PHP1.323 billion annual executive budget last year, only 18.56 percent or PHP245.6 million was drawn from local sources, he said.

For this year, he said they have increased the local funding to 20 percent or PHP293.5 million out of the PHP1.47 billion annual budget.

By 2017, he said the province’s annual budget will increase to PHP1.72 billion and 22.25 percent or PHP303.3 million are targeted for local sourcing.

Aside from the revision of the revenue code, Batol said they have proposed for the establishment of more economic enterprises that would be run by the provincial government.

He said the local government presently operates the South Cotabato Gym and Cultural Center; Seven falls resort and zipline; South Cotabato Sports Complex’s swimming pool, track oval and stalls; and, the Productivity and Technology Center.

Batol said the provincial government’s local income mainly come from the economic enterprises, real property tax, business tax, small-scale mining tax, quarry or sand and gravel and fines and penalties, amusement tax , franchise tax and professional fees.

In support of the move, the Provincial Assessor’s Office is pushing for the implementation by next year of its proposed general revisions on the province’s real property tax schedule.

Felix Sadiang-abay, provincial assessor, said they have also revitalized their campaigns to discover more taxable real properties within the province’s 10 towns and lone city.

In 2015, the local government assessed a total of 13.06 billion worth of taxable real properties.

“We’re targeting a 2 percent increase for this year,” he said.

In the last six months, Sadiang-abay said they have already assessed some PHP13.2 billion worth of properties.(PNA)

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