From The Manila Times:
Sen. Lacson’s Senate Bill 44 is one of the bills being backed by the
Department of Finance to reform the country’s outdated property
valuation system.
BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT
AUGUST 22, 2018 BUSINESS
The Department of Finance (DoF) has expressed support for proposals
aimed at reforming the country’s “outdated” property valuation system.
In a statement on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd
said the department was backing Senate Bill 44, filed by Sen. Panfilo
Lacson, and its counterparts, House Bill (HB) 2207 introduced by Speaker
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and HB 68 by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda.
The pending bills are in line with the valuation reforms being pushed by the government, he added.
“Essentially, real estate is the most valuable asset and biggest
financial resource,” Dominguez was quoted as saying in a letter to
lawmakers.
“But its contribution to government revenues, particularly for local
governments, has remained dismal due to outdated Schedule of Market
Values (SMVs), poor collection efficiency and tax administration and
lack of uniformity in the valuation of real property.”
In the letter, the Finance chief said the need for an “equitable,
efficient and transparent valuation system” had become even more urgent
so as to “stimulate the property market, attract investments, improve
government’s resource mobilization through property taxation, and foster
greater confidence in the real estate sector.”
The Finance department explained that the proposed reforms would lead
to the adoption of international standards, particularly by “setting up
a single valuation base for taxation and benchmarking purposes,
insulating the valuation process from politics as LGUs (local government
units) will continue to regulate tax rates and assessment levels,
improving the oversight functions of the national government, and
establishing an electronic database to support valuation.”
Dominguez suggested several enhancements such as the establishment of
a Real Property Valuation Service within the Bureau of Local Government
Finance.
A provision barring an LGU from receiving any “conditional or
performance-based grants or any form of credit financing from the
national government” in cases where it fails to update its SMV and
conduct a general revision of property assessments every time the
Secretary of Finance approves a new set was also proposed.
“Dominguez also recommended a provision requiring local assessors and
other local officials and staff dealing with real property valuation to
undergo training under the Philippine Tax Academy, as well as mandating
them to automate their operations, adopt tax mapping technology,
maintain software-enabled valuation system, undertake data cleansing and
computerize their records management system,” the Finance department
said.
The publication of the local ordinance for the new and revised
assessment levels and tax rates should be the responsibility of local
governments, it added.
Dominguez also proposed that the Secretary of Finance should no
longer endorse persons for appointments as local assessors considering
that the law already requires assessors and assistant assessors to be
licensed.
Lastly, “the Finance Secretary further recommended that a provision
on the mandatory constitution of the Local Board of Assessment Appeals
be included to ensure that available redress mechanisms are in place and
that the Register of Deeds shall provide assessors with real property
transactions data and make the information sharing free of charge,” the
department said.
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