Chiz: Time to abolish CTC
SENATOR Francis Chiz Escurdero on Friday said it is high time to abolish the use of Community Tax Certificate (CTC) and the power to levy community tax .
In his Senate Bill 889, Escudero said Cedula is a thing of the past as he cited history of the CTC then known as residence tax and residence certificate which the senator said brings incarnations of our country’s colonial past.
Escudero said the Cedula has become obsolete for almost all intents and purposes and absolutely describing it as useless with no value in the present age.
The senator said the cedula has been found to be an inadequate form of identification and an ineffective tool for local government collection and is hence rendundant in most occasion.
“Along with increasing use of passport and tax identification numbers in delcaration of income and non-procurement of community tax certificates has further eroded community tax collections.
As a result, payment of community tax “had become a voluntary matter.” Escudero pointed out.
He further explained that the cedula now proved to be unnecessary burden imposed on our people who re required to present it when doing public transactions. It was deemed useless by our forebears durin gthe colonial times, it is more so today,” Escudero said.
The Cedula was first implemented in the 19th Century tax reform in the Philippines during the Spanish era. After the tribute system or head tax to Spain who occupied the Philippines for 300 years. The Cedula was then used to all Filipinos in order to monitor the payment of residence tax.
The bill also seek to repeal the provision of Rep. Act no. 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991, which carry over the provision imposition residence tax then found in Commonwealth Act No. 465 and the Local Tax Code of 1973.
Escudero reiterated that the abolition of CTC or Cedula is like scrapping a relic of colonial past that should already be buried for its obsolescence.
