Lapu-Lapu City Goes Cashless, First to Accept QR Payments for Property, Business, and Local Gov’t Taxes

GCash, the undisputed leader and preferred mobile wallet in the Philippines, continues its efforts to fully digitize government transactions in the country as it enables Lapu-Lapu City to be the first LGU in the Philippines to accept cashless payments for city taxes.

The Lapu-Lapu City LGU now accepts GCash QR payments for its citizens paying real property taxes, business taxes, community tax certificates (cedula), and other local government fees. The city adopts cashless payments in its efforts to improve safety and convenience for its citizens.

“Cashless payments during the new normal are an imperative, as it promotes contactless transactions. With GCash QR codes deployed in Lapu-Lapu City’s government offices, citizens can transact their fees and taxes simply with just their smartphone” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of GCash

Customers with GCash accounts simply need to open their GCash app, select Pay QR, scan the LGU QR code, and input the amount they need to pay. Only internet connectivity and available funds in the customer’s GCash wallet are required to do transactions.

“Adopting QR payments during a time such as a new normal is crucial, and GCash plays an important role in making the city’s citizens and government employees safer. This would also make transactions more convenient as change is not needed anymore, and improves our collection and reconciliation activities as all transactions are instantly documented digitally,” added Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan.

The city will also start accepting GCash payments for its online services in Q2 2021, and also has plans to expand QR payments to other LGU entities, such as police stations.

Adoption of cashless payments further accelerates the Digital Transformation Roadmap of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, where the agency aims to shift at least 50 percent of retail payment transactions to digital, and to have at least 70 percent of Filipinos have their own e-wallet by 2023, an initiative that GCash fully supports.

In 2020, TESDA tapped GCash for the distribution of its scholar allowances, while the DSWD used the fintech platform to distribute SAP subsidies to qualified Filipinos.

Lapu-Lapu City is a first class highly urbanized city in the region of Central Visayas in the Philippines, with a population of close to half a million people.

Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), which operates GCash, is part of the portfolio companies of 917Ventures, the largest corporate incubator in the Philippines wholly-owned by Globe Telecom Inc.

GCash is available for download on the App Store and Google Play. For more information, kindly visit https://www.gcash.com