Idle Philippine lands to get some action with new taxes
Idle Philippine lands to get some action with new taxes
The indolence of the Filipino…land
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants to see more productive use of the vast tracts of land sitting idly across the archipelago.
Idle lands will be “heavily” taxed during his term, the firebrand politician issued the warning at the launch of a vegetable garden yesterday in the Malacañang Park. “If (land) hasn’t been developed for 10 to 20 years, I will double its real estate tax or triple unless you are willing to lend it to somebody or to the barangay for the people to use it.”
Duterte blamed the proliferation of idle lands on rampant speculation. Disused land parcels could have been repurposed as agricultural land, improving domestic food security and enabling the Philippines to export more produce to other Asian nations, he said.
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“After my visit (to China), they are accepting all, even vegetables. It’s not even enough for one billion Chinese. They cannot cope up with food production. They have to buy.”
Owners manage to keep farmlands idle because of low land tax rates in the Philippines, which go as little as PHP200 (USD4) per hectare a year, according to Rolando Dy, executive director of the UA&P Center for Food and Agribusiness. “The farmland is idle due to many causes. They are: migration to cities, migration as OFWs, land speculation, lack of investments, and more. Some lands are practically abandoned by absentee owners,” Dy wrote in an op-ed for BusinessWorld.
Duterte apparently shares his sentiment with former President Benigno Aquino III. During his term in 2010, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Finance jointly issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2010-02 reinforcing a 1991 legislation that imposes ad valorem tax on idle lands.
At the time, the Philippines has 7.5 million hectares of idle lands that could have been used for agro-forestry and biofuel production, according to local environmental regulators.
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Source: Property Report