Dagupan’s bursar hits on poor performance

Mayor Belen Fernandez

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – A political kibitzer here lamented the poor tax collection efficiency under this city’s treasurer Romelita Alcantara.
 “Aside from her P40 million's deficit in the collection target of P612 million for this year, Dagupan has been dusted off by Urdaneta City,” the source, who asked anonymity, opined.
 Urdaneta City has a tax goal of P637 million excluding special appropriation this year.
 The source said this burgeoning city should be exceeding its tax target. “Alcantara lacks vision and imagination to boost the public coffer,” she quipped.
She proposed that aside from Mayor Belen Fernandez weeding out the excessive number of consultants, real and “ghost” emergency workers, and other dead woods hired by former Mayor Benjamin S. Lim, Fernandez should hire experienced financial consultants to advise her how to raise and collect more taxes. “She should get for instance savvy former treasurer Arturo Mandapat, Jr. who just retired as bursars of San Carlos City and Urbiztondo”.
 Mandapat, the source said, was responsible to the revenue turned around of San Carlos City and the classic tax spikes of Urbiztondo town.
“Mandapat was a perennial awardee of the Bureau of Local Government Finance after he exceeded his tax collection for several years. If Dagupan City reeled today on the P40 million deficits, San Carlos experienced  a tax surplus of P72.7 million under the chutzpah of Mandapat. Imagine what P72.7 million can do to the deficit-reeling administration of Mayor Fernandez,” the source posed.
Mandapat earlier opined in this paper how poor is this city’s in terms of tax collection. He said that Alcantara should have knowledge about the financial figures reported to her by business owners. “Normally business people do not report the correct amount of their income. Otherwise, they pay a lot of taxes,” he explained. He said most of businessmen do not have real books of accounts.
 Mandapat explained that despite of that adverse practice, there is a tool to detect it through “Presumptive Income Level (PIL)”.
 “Diyan sa PIL all kinds of business dapat meron siyang (Alcantara) experienced na magkaka -income usually how much the amount is derived from every kind of business”.
Mandapat said Alcantara should diligently conduct examinations of books of accounts. “She supervises her collectors in the field lalo na sa market. Mayayaman na iyong mga empleyado sa market! ”he stressed.
 A high official here said that the income derived from the “consignation” of aqua products at Magsaysay Avenue is not enough to pay the daily salary of market personnel who supervise the entrepot.
 “Dito sa amin (San Carlos City) iyong isang banyera (of fish) lang that is P100 ang tax nila dito. Ilang banyera ang nandiyan sa Dagupan ?” he posed.
 When the Department of Finance assigned Mandapat as acting treasurer of Urbiztondo, the tax collection effort of that town almost doubled. Some of his strategies were to oblige the Central Pangasinan Electric Corporation and Digitel to pay business taxes there. Even the water district there, the source said, pays now a 1% Water Sales Tax because of the pro-active intercessions of Mandapat.