377 city residents availed of amnesty

The City Assessor’s Office disclosed that it was able to receive only three hundred seventy-seven applications for amnesty for electrical connections from May to December last year following the implementation of an ordinance extending amnesty for power connections in the city.

City Assessor Maria Almaya Addawe claimed that of the filed applications, 74 percent of the same had been approved while 14 applications were denied for various reasons.

She expressed hope that there will be more residents who will avail of the aforesaid amnesty as the local legislative body passed a similar ordinance extending the same for another 6-month period this year to allow people to have legitimate power connections with the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO).

The city assessor explained that among the reasons for the denial of the applications for amnesty include the fact that there is already an existing assessment for the concerned structure, another separate application had been filed for assessment for the same structure, the structures that are subject to assessment are located in safeguarded areas and that the individuals that requested for the assessment of their structures did not appear during the scheduled inspection.

According to her, one of the prohibitions of the ordinance extending amnesty to owners of structures purposely for power connection is that the same must not be situated in safeguarded areas such as forest and watershed reservations or in danger zones that had been previously identified by the concerned government agencies and the local government.

The assessment of the structures with the appurtenant tax declaration will serve as a basis for the applicant of the same to support his or her application for the issuance of the certificate of electrical inspection from the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) and subsequently for their application for electrical connection with BENECO.

Addawe stipulated that with the extension of the amnesty period for electrical connections, there will be a significant increase in applications that will be processed by the office so that people will be able to have legitimate power connections with the electric cooperative that will be beneficial in reducing pilferage.

Under the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government code, it is the City Assessor’s Office that is empowered to provide the schedule of market values for the payment of real property taxes on lands, buildings and machineries as part of the revenue that will accrue to the local governments.

In 2020, the local legislative body passed an ordinance providing for the revised schedule of market values for real property taxes on lands where 70 percent of the computed increase was implemented last year while the remaining balance will be implemented this year to ensure its full enforcement in the computation of the real property taxes of lands in the different parts of the city.

The Local Government code also provides that local governments shall review and provide for revised schedule of market values for real property taxes every 3 years to ensure that the taxes being paid by the people will be based on the existing use of the properties that are located in the different local governments. – Dexter A. See