House panel OKs bill reforming real property valuation system

The House Committee on Ways and Means chaired by Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda (seated, second from right) approved on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, the substitute bill on Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, which is Package 3 of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP). Rep. Jose Gay Padiernos of Galing sa Puso party-list group (seated, second from left) sponsored the bill as a vice chair of the Committee on Government Reorganization. (Photo from the House Press and Public Affairs Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — The House ways and means panel approved on Wednesday the third package of the Duterte administration’s tax reform program which will amend the country’s outdated real property valuation system.

The still unnumbered substitute bill is a consolidation of at least 13 bills by various House members. The House already approved this proposed law in the previous 17th Congress on Nov. 12, 2018, but this had been pending in Senate committees since July 26, 2016.

The bill seeks to establish a single valuation base for taxation, through the adoption of the Schedule of Market Values (SMVs) of local government units (LGUs), and use the updated values as the benchmark for other purposes, such as lease, rental, acquisition, and right-of-way (ROW) claims.

The bill also seeks to “recentralize” the approval of the SMVs by the local Sanggunian back to the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Local Government Finance in coordination with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Package three also adopts international standards and cures the “multiple, and overlapping” valuations that cause disputes “delaying ROW acquisition and hamper infrastructure development,” according to Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, ways and means chair and one of the bill’s authors.

Salceda also said this revamp on valuation system and establishment of a comprehensive and up-to-date electronic database of all real property transactions would grant each LGU the “power to create its own sources of revenue and to levy taxes, fees, and charges.”

The outdated SMVs are unreliable for Filipino families, especially overseas Filipino workers who wish to invest in real property, as they do not accurately reflect fair prices that landowners should receive for their property and result in a smaller Special Education Fund, Salceda added.

Salceda said LGUs would have revenues of up to P30.2 billion in the first year of the measure’s implementation if enacted into law.

He said they would try to introduce the bill to the House plenary which is currently holding debates on the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget.

Read the substitute bill here: Real Property Valuation Reform Substitute Bill.