The Manila city government has approved an ordinance forgoing a second round of real property tax increase this year. ADVERTISEMENTTo pay up the obligations, the local government revised its revenue code and imposed a 60-percent increase in the city’s real property tax in 2014. Another tax hike of 40 percent was supposed to be implemented this year. “We are debt-free now that’s why I ordered the halt in the increase in real property taxes,” Estrada said in a statement on Tuesday. Councilor Anna Katrina Yupangco, who authored the ordinance, said the cancellation of the second round of tax increase was also in response to the request of the citizens, who in public hearings had complained that the tax increase “would be too much for them.” —JOVIC YEE

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer January 24, 2017 16:55 UTC