MWSS owes QC P141 M in taxes

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) owes the Quezon City government at least P141 million in unpaid real property taxes, The STAR learned yesterday.

And if Quezon City Councilor Rommel Abesamis will have his way, he will demand payment of the accumulated tax delinquency, which has been running since 1993.

Abesamis has asked colleagues in the City Council to pass a resolution asking the Quezon City Treasurer’s Office to collect the unpaid real property taxes.

MWSS is just one of some 10,000 delinquent tax payers in the city, according to the City Treasurer’s Office. Victor Enriquez, officer-in-charge of the office, has told the City Council that a big number of the delinquent tax payers are government institutions and private establishments which owe City Hall unpaid taxes amounting to hundreds of millions each.

Abesamis said that while the MWSS has offered to settle its tax obligations with the city government in a compromise amount of P100 million, its terms of compromise were unacceptable because it would only pay the tax arrears when it is able.

Abesamis said City Hall should now give MWSS an unextendable period of 60 days to settle the tax arrears or risk losing delinquent properties in a public auction.

"MWSS has reneged in the payment of real property taxes... for a long period of time, to the detriment of (the city’s basic social service programs)," said Abesamis.

In 1997, City Hall agreed to offset the city’s water accounts against the real property tax arrears incurred by MWSS before 1993, although the legality of the compromise deal has yet to be established by the Department of Justice.