PARANAQUE is now the fifth richest city in the country, earning P6.3 billion in local revenue generation in 2020, according to a report released by the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) this month.

Niño Raymond B. Alvina, BLGF executive director, released on Tuesday the national top 10 performing provinces, cities, and municipalities in local revenue generation for fiscal year 2020.

Alvina disclosed that Parañaque surpassed the P 4.8 billion locally sourced revenue (LSR) collections in 2019 by P 1.5 billion this year.

The city treasurer’s office headed Dr. Anthony Pulmano exceeded by 12.9 percent the targeted tax collection in 2020, despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, according to Alvina.

“Based on the data submitted through electronic statement of receipts and expenditures in the last quarter of 2020, the year-on-year growth in locally sourced revenues of Paranaque has tremendously increased by 12.9 percent,” the executive director said.

Paranaque’s LSR reached P6.3 billion which includes the sum of real property taxes, local business tax, as well as fees and charges and receipts from economic enterprises.

Toledo City in Cebu is the number one on the list of top-performing cities last year with year-on-year growth of 50.6 percent.

Closely tailing on second spot is Trese Martires City in Cavite with collection exceeding by 23.3 percent; followed by Quezon City, 15.6 percent; Meycauyan City in Bulacan, 14.2 percent; and Parañaque, 12.9.

Quezon and Paranaque are the only cities in Metro Manila that was included in the top-performing cities in the country in terms of local revenue generation last year.

Paranaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez commended Pulmano for exceeding the collection target in 2020 and for the office’s excellent performance in tax collection for the past seven years.

Olivarez attributed the high revenue collection to the city’s innovations in tax collection schemes, particularly the Online Payment Facility using automated teller machine (ATM) credit and debit cards through the facilities of the UnionBank.

He noted that the continuously increasing number of local and foreign investors and other business establishments operating in the city before the pandemic has also contributed to the hefty tax haul.

For his part, Pulmano said the adoption of the online services on land tax and miscellaneous payments “as we embrace in the new normal” helped a lot in the improvement of local tax collection in the city.

In the city category, Quezon City was awarded the highest nominal locally sourced revenue in 2020 with P21.7 billion, followed by Makati with P14.9 billion; Manila, P11 billion.

In the fourth spot is Taguig City, P10.2 billion; Pasig, P9.4 billion; Taguig City, P8.6 billion; Paranaque, P6.3 billion; Pasay, P5.4 billion; Davao City, P5.3 billion; Mandaluyong, P4.6 billion; and Muntinlupa City, P4.2 billion.