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THE
Department of Finance is bringing to the 21st century
its 53-year-old Treasury Operations Manual with a
comprehensive update that is expected to become
effective about September this year.
Dr.
Victor B. Endriga,
Quezon City
treasurer and president of the Philippine Association of
Local Treasurers and Assessors (Phaltra), said, “It is a
complete overhaul of the old manual,” adding that the
final revisions to the new “bible of local treasurers”
were finished last week and the manual now awaits the
signature of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.
He
predicted the new manual “would definitely result in
higher revenue collection” for local government units
since it incorporated all the new regulations from the
department, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Commission
on Audit, Department of Budget and Management, and the
Local Government Code.
A team
composed of local treasurers and officials of the Bureau
of Local Government Finance crafted the new manual. They
then went on a three-day marathon session in Currimao,
Ilocos Norte, last week to fast-track all the needed
revisions.
Endriga
said the new Treasury Manual will take effect probably
by September after the issuance of a memorandum circular
from the DOF.
He said
the new handbook is very stringent in all the aspects of
treasury practices that it would promote more
accountability on the part of local treasurers.
Among
its salient features, Endriga said, is the daily
reporting of collections to make all the transactions
transparent. Also, the manual instructs treasurers to
regularly inform tax delinquents of their obligations.
It also
specifies stiffer administrative and criminal penalties
for violators.
Local
treasurers collect, among others, the real property and
business taxes, as well as various permits and licenses.
They also collect for the national government the
withholding taxes of employees of LGUs and remittances
for the security systems.
In
return, the national government gives LGUs funding in
the form of the Internal Revenue Allotment, the amount
of which is based on the size of the localities and
their collections.
The
League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) endorsed to
Malacañang, meanwhile, the designation of Endriga as the
new BIR commissioner.
Iloilo City
mayor Jerry P. Trenas, president of the LCP, said
Endriga can readily address the BIR’s perennial
tax-collection shortfalls based on his “track record at
balancing budgets and creating fund surpluses in all his
assignments.”
“Fiscal
problems can only be solved by a fiscal manager and Dr.
Endriga’s expertise along this line is a potent force
for meeting revenue targets, sustaining the growth
momentum and creating surplus funds for the national
coffer before the end of your term,” Trenas said in his
letter to President Arroyo dated July 4, 2007.
Endriga
is largely credited with instituting changes in the
collection system of the Quezon City government that
made it the richest LGU in the country for five years
now. |
