PALO, Leyte, June 5 (PNA) — The German Development Cooperation-Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has chosen Leyte province to look into the sustainability of the Integrated Taxation Management System (iTAX) it has developed as it gears to end support to the program this year.
Leyte governor Leopoldo Dominic Petilla said that the international agency has chosen the province because it has a lot of programmers produced by the provincial government through its Multiple Income Creating Project-Information and Communication Technology (MIC-P-ICT).
The iTAX is a software program that aids local government units (LGUs) to address issues in tax collection. Several provinces and municipalities are already using the system including Leyte, he said.
Petilla said that in the years to come the program may develop other features and it will be managed already by the MIC-P-ICT to be handled by select students and graduates of the program and their instructors.
He added that even prior the exit of GIZ support, the province is about to deploy a team to Borongan City in Eastern Samar that already showed interest on the program.
Several weeks ago, he disclosed that he already entered into an agreement with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) that is partnering with the GIZ for the program.
“I was overwhelmed during the signing because a lot of governors are signing up already,” he said. “It is not mandatory but definitely it will increase their collection.”
With the program, he added that LGUs will be able to track down who among their constituents are paying right taxes and who are not.
Payments to avail of the software program vary for provinces, cities and municipalities to be paid to the provincial government of Leyte.
The governor said that they are yet to finalize how much of the payment will be given to the province to develop the ICT program. (PNA)