Lining up to pay business and real property taxes at Quezon City may soon be a thing of the past, as more business and property owners are opting to have their transactions online.

This was the assessment made by Business Permit and Licensing Division Chief Margie Santos Tuesday when she guested at the Quezon City Journalist Forum held at the Executive Lounge of the city hall.

Santos said most of the over 69,000 business establishments are now renewing their permits and paying their dues online availing the convenience brought by Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte’s digitalization program when she became the local chief executive.

Atty. Carlo Calingasan from the City Treasurer’s Office revealed that last year alone they were able to collect more than P35 Billion in local business and property taxes, giving the city a surplus of over P1.9 Billion.

The two city officials both said they are now targeting P39 Billion as taxpayers enjoy the luxury of transacting via digitalization.

The bulk of the tax collected came from residents who are into retailing. Santos said even online sellers are also registering their business with them.

Delinquent taxpayers are also easily traced with the automation but still given due process until being “put or added to the negative list” that bars them from renewing their businesses.

Santos said the automation program gave them easy access to tracking every transaction which also resulted in fewer taxpayers lining up to have their permits and payments processed.

“It also includes tracking the performance of our people like our evaluators. We can monitor their performance level and output,” Santos said.

Engelbert Apostol who heads the Public Affairs and Information Services Division said the tax collected is used for social services for disadvantaged sectors of the city (senior citizens, informal settlers families, etc.) which eventually will also have an integrated data system that can link even the QCitizens health information.

“When your chief executive adheres to good governance. Everything follows. Taxpayers knew where their payments go,” Apostol said.