President Marcos has signed into law the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act (RPVARA) which improves the country's outdated valuation system.
The new law—Republic Act No. 12001— was one of the two measures Marcos signed on Thursday, June 13.
Marcos said the RPVARA is expected to change the Philippines' real estate landscape as it aims to streamline and enhance the real property valuation and assessment system through a uniform real property appraisal compliant with international standards.
"So, this new law is borne out of the necessity and the realization that there is a need to enhance the country’s tax collection system so we can generate revenues, generate jobs, [and] investments all over the country," he said in his speech.
"No longer will we rely on the outdated valuation system," he added.
According to the President, the new law also adopts the prevailing market value as the single real property valuation base for the assessment of real property tax.
He added that it complements efforts to modernize the services in the local government units (LGUs) through the creation of a Real Property Information System — a comprehensive digitalized real property tax administration.
The Chief Executive further said that under the law, a two-year amnesty on interests and penalties for taxpayers with unpaid real property tax will be adopted to "instill and encourage long-term and consistent tax compliance" among taxpayers.
The new law, Marcos also stated, is one of his administration's priority legislations and is included in the Common Legislative Agenda.
It is in line with the government's 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda, "wherein we put primacy on the pursuit of bureaucratic efficiency that is driven by transparency, digitalization, and the practice of innovative work processes in the civil service," he added.
With the passage of the new law, he thanked both houses of Congress for passing the two laws, including the Negros Island Region (NIR) Act, which, he said, are very important and will be very productive.
"And I call on all government agencies to efficiently and effectively implement the newly enacted laws to its fullest extent so our people may reap its benefits at the soonest possible time," he said.