The Chapala government is well along the path to running one of the most up-to-date and technically sophisticated municipal land registry offices in Jalisco, if not the nation, according to the city’s Catastro director Juan Carlos Pelayo.
Winding down to the end of an 18-month modernization initiative that began early last year, the department has been in the process of bringing its records up to date, evaluating property values, upgrading equipment and software and remodeling its office facilities. The major long-term benefits of the project will be to boost the municipality’s revenue income and elevate the coefficient in obtaining state funding for local government operations.
The Catastro upgrade was launched after Chapala qualified for a federal program that involves technical guidance from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), along with a Banobras loan that will allow the city to recuperate 60 percent of its costs.
At a January 8 press conference, Pelayo announced that the agency has already advanced about 70 percent in reviewing and correcting its database of 26,000 taxpayer property accounts, and has sights on completing the task within the next several months. The work has entailed mapping out Chapala’s entire territory lot by lot, examining satellite images and carrying out physical inspections of hundreds of individual properties.
He noted closer tracking will make it possible to significantly reduce the high percentage of records that do not accurately reflect the true tax value of properties that have been subject to new home construction, remodeling and additions which were never properly declared to the land registry.
The Catastro chief acknowledged that many property owners may find themselves caught in the crunch, facing somewhat higher annual tax bills and in some cases, fines and surcharges for failure to register property improvements. He pointed out that the agency is offering opportunities to establish extended payment plans to cover pending fees and condone some penalties for taxpayers who appear voluntarily before the end of February.
Over the first three days after reopening for the collection of 2014 predial bills following the Christmas holidays, Catastro attended to more than 1,000 taxpayers. Less than 30 individuals requested clarifications for notable tax hikes, Pelayo said.
The official stressed that that impuesto predial (property tax) and transmisiones patromoniales (municipal fees applied to ownership transfers) make up the greatest portion of the local sources of income for the city treasury.
He added that keeping accurate and up-to-date land records has the side benefit of providing the government with geographical date that is applicable to improving other areas of government management such as urban planning, public services, social development and public security. And it translates into greater legal security to property owners, assuring them less red tape when carrying out sales transactions or real estate transfers to their heirs.