BIR conducts zonal valuations of lands in P’gasinan

To spike tax collection

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – Because the government needs more monies to funds its workers and projects, the Bureau of Internal Revenue initiated recently a public hearing on zonal valuation of the 14 towns and two cities’ Central Pangasinan, according to the chief of the Revenue District Office-4 .

NEW VALUATION OF LAND. Revenue District Office-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente 

explains to stakeholders in a public hearing conducted last Thursday in 

Dagupan City the new assessment of real properties in Central Pangasinan 

the Bureau of Internal Revenue, assessors of towns and cities, and other

 members of the technical committee on property valuation had listed. 

Photo by Mortz C. Ortigoza

RDO-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente said at the Jeck’s Restaurant here that the hearing would be used for valuation of new sales, estate, and donor taxes of real properties.

“This is not to be used in the collection of RPT (real property taxes). If there are no transaction naman gamit itong zonal valuation na ito. It is only when there are sales, donation, estate taxes,” she stressed.

Assistant Revenue District Office’ Chief Trina Villamil said the hearing last Thursday was dubbed “Public Hearing of the Revision of Zonal Valuation of Municipalities and Cities covered by RDO-4”.

RDO-4 is based in Calasiao, Pangasinan and covered the cities here and San Carlos and the 14 towns around them.

Villamil said the hearing was attended by members of the technical committee on property valuation, BIR Region-1 Regional Director Marina C. de Guzman, Assistant Regional Director Antonio Jonathan G. Jaminolo, the members of the sub-technical committee, assessors from the 16 local government units and the provincial government.

“The zonal valuation should be updated every three years as mandated by the tax code,” Villamil told the roughly hundred of crowd invited to the hearing.

Vicente said that under Revenue Memorandum Order 41, it empowers the municipal and city assessors, the appraisers, and the BIR to create a sub-technical committee to establish a zonal valuation.

During the hearing, Sta. Barbara town’s Assessor Eliazar T. Cabangon questioned the high valuation per square meter (PSM) in his town compared to that of San Carlos City,

“In Manaoag per square meter is so huge in peso terms compared to the 395 pesos psm in San Carlos City,” he told the brass of the BIR.

The municipal assessor of Manaoag cited too that assessment of real properties in San Carlos are low and need another round of review.

But Villamil said that San Carlos City has more far-flung barangays to its 86 villages. She cited that the highest valuation in that city is 2,800 pesos psm.

“There are no high rise buildings, no water refilling stations in many of those villages in San Carlos City,” argued by the assessor of that city.

A land to be classified as commercial should be near a road, the BIR explained.

A BIR official who asked anonymity asked:”Papayag ba kayong mga taga Dagupan City na ang highest valuation niyo sa Poblacion Oeste is 35 thousand pesos lang while sa Laoag City (Ilocos Norte) is 100 thousand pesos na ang pinaka mataas, e mas asensado ang Dagupan sa Laoag?”