‘COVID-19 did not dampen 2020 RPT collections’

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that the coronavirus disease 2019 or Covid-19 pandemic did not dampen the 2020 real property tax collection (RPT) of this city.

In a report, Acting City Treasurer Arlene Memoria reported to Leonardia that the city was still able to collect PHP692-million in RPT in 2020.

This was only PHP1.9-million short of the RPT collections in 2019.

“We are grateful that Bacolodnons continued to remit their RPT payments in 2020 despite the lockdowns then and the intermittent closure of the Real Estate Tax Division of the City Treasurer’s Office when several employees there tested positive for the virus. This act of remitting their RPT payments, despite COVID-19, only goes to show the civic spirit of these Bacolodnons, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts,” the mayor said.

Leonardia added that they were expecting a bigger drop in the 2020 RPT collections because of the pandemic.

“To see it fall short by only PHP1.9-million against the 2019 collections is a clear sign that Bacolodnons understood how important their RPT payments were in helping their local government to provide them the essential services they needed during this pandemic. We hope they will continue to remit these RPT 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 to quickly recover the momentum in our economic thrusts once Covid-19 is behind us.” (With a report from PIO)