SP set to approve New Revenue Code
BACOLOD CITY -- Sangguniang Panglungsod (SP) Member Diosdado Valenzuela, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, confirmed yesterday that the New Revenue Code is on its way for third and final reading after a thorough deliberation was conducted in a series of committee hearings attended by the City Treasurer's Office and other revenue generating agencies like markets and socio-economic enterprise.
Valenzuela noted some amendments to the New Revenue Code after the assessment and suggestion made by Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson and some SP Members.
Valenzuela, being the main author of the Revenue Code, had deleted Section 89 which emphasized "the prohibited areas in selling liquor to any person whose place of business is within the radius of fifty (50) meters from an academic school, church, hospital or public building, in the case of bar, cocktail, lounge, pubhouse, beer garden and the like".
On the other hand, SP Member Greg Gasataya also inserted in Section 93 of the Revenue Code that it shall be the Sangguniang Panglungsod that will declare temporary vending areas through an Ordinance. The New Revenue Code was finally discussed after the Department of Finance suggested that the regulatory fees should be adjusted since Bacolod City has lagged behind other Local Government Units which already accelerated their local revenues.
Valenzuela along with Vice Mayor Sayson attended last year the seminar conducted by Department of Finance headed by Secretary Margarito Teves.
Valenzuela said that under the New Revenue Code, "All real property, whether taxable or exempt shall be appraised at the current and fair market value prevailing in the locality where the property is located using the government schedule of values as basis."
The Revenue Code likewise imposed an annual tax of one percent on the assessed value of the residential and non-residential property in addition to the residential basic real property tax.