2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-TWO - Public Works (§§ 1 — 1104) › Chapter 13 - Puerto Rico Irrigation Service, South Coast (§§ 251 — 279) › § 260 - Tax on land in permanent irrigation district

The amount that shall be assessed and levied upon any tract of land included in the permanent irrigation district shall be determined as follows:
The number of acres of land contained in the total area of the additional irrigation district shall be added to the number of acres of land included in the irrigation district established and in operation under the provisions of the Public Irrigation Law, approved September 18, 1908, §§ 251—259 of this title, and laws amendatory thereof, and the total sum resulting shall be the number used as a basis for apportioning the assessment levied annually upon the lands included at the time in the permanent irrigation district.
Prior to the first day of July of each year the Secretary of the Treasury shall compute and shall add the total amount due for the next year upon credits for water rights or concessions, and the amount estimated for the next fiscal year and certified to him as estimated by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority as the cost of operation and maintenance of the irrigation system with its extensions and accessory installations, including the amount payable to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, as hereinafter provided in this act for the water supplied to the irrigation system from the Matrullas Reservoir. He shall then either add to or subtract from the amount thus obtained the amount of any deficit or surplus, as the case may be, estimated to exist in connection with the Irrigation Fund as a result of the operations of the then current fiscal year. From this aggregate sum he shall subtract the amounts paid annually into the Irrigation Fund by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority pursuant to §§ 228—231 of this title, and the amount estimated and certified to him as estimated by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority as receipts for the ensuing fiscal year deriving from any source other than bond issues and the general assessments herein provided to be levied upon the land in the permanent irrigation district, but including, however, the total amount of the additional charge or surcharge to be levied and collected on each acre of land included in the additional irrigation district, as provided in the act relative to said additional district. To the amount so determined the Secretary of the Treasury shall add an amount equivalent to two per centum (2%) of the total, as a margin of safety for delinquent collections; and the amount thus determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, subject to the limitations and provisions hereinafter set forth, shall be and constitute the total assessment for the said fiscal year, and the same shall be levied upon the lands at the time included in the permanent irrigation district and in the additional irrigation district including any lands belonging to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and forming part of the said district, which lands shall be liable for and shall pay the assessments levied hereunder in the same manner as the other lands included in the said irrigation district.
The amount of credit on its assessments to which any tract of land having a water right or concession shall be entitled on account of the assignment thereof shall be that percentage of such assessments as may have been determined by the Irrigation Commission, as above provided.
No tract of land included in the permanent irrigation district shall pay any assessment whatsoever until it has received or has been offered water from the irrigation system for a period of twelve (12) months, said water to have been received after the inclusion of the said land in the provisional irrigation district, or, if the said land is originally included in the permanent irrigation district, after such inclusion; but thereafter the said tract of land shall be liable at the regular assessment dates for the same assessments as it would have been liable for had all the lands in the permanent irrigation district been the object of assessment under the provisions of this section; Provided, That the said tract of land shall pay an assessment for the portion of the semester either fiscal or calendar, as the case may be, if any, remaining after the completion of the said period of twelve (12) months for which no assessment is paid in accordance with the foregoing, and the assessment due for any such portion of a semester shall be paid on the first day of the month next following the expiration of the said period of twelve (12) months for which no assessment is paid.
Assessments under the foregoing provisions shall be levied on each tract of land in the proportion that the area of such tract of land bears to the total number of acres comprised in the permanent irrigation district. The amount resulting from such computation shall be set upon the assessment roll for the various tracts at the time constituting the permanent irrigation district, after first deducting, in the case of any land entitled to a credit for a water right or concession, the proper credit to which the said tract of land is entitled, computed according to the provisions above set forth. The assessment roll thus formed shall be completed by the Secretary of the Treasury on or before the first day of July of each year, and said assessments are hereby levied as a lien on the said lands although not as a personal liability upon the owners thereof, in favor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and said assessments shall constitute a tax, the lien of which shall be superior and prior in law to any right, claim or lien of any other nature, save and except the general taxes of Puerto Rico, as provided by law, and the same shall be payable to the Secretary of the Treasury who shall proceed to the collection thereof, and to the attachment and sale of the land to enforce collection, in the manner and at the time now or hereafter provided by law for the collection and enforcement of other real property taxes, except that in the case of assessments levied for a period of less than six (6) months, as hereinbefore provided, the said assessments shall be apportioned, levied and collected as hereinbefore provided.
The amount to be included in the cost of operation and maintenance of the irrigation system to cover the sum payable to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority for the water from the Matrullas Reservoir, owned by the said Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, to supply the irrigation system, shall be determined on the basis of a price per acre-foot or of the average total volume taken annually, which price shall be fixed by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, taking into account the value of this water for purposes of irrigation and the relation of physical interconnection existing between the works of the irrigation system and the works of the Toro Negro Hydroelectric Project, which comprise the said Matrullas Reservoir.
The Commonwealth shall assume the liability for the payment of the interest and principal on outstanding irrigation bonds and other obligations incurred by the Commonwealth with the purpose of carrying out improvements and extensions to the irrigation system authorized by law, and for the purposes of complying with such obligations the Electric Power Authority is hereby empowered on and after fiscal year 1966-67, to withhold annually from the five percent (5%) of its gross receipts that the Electric Power Authority sets aside, according to § 212(b)(1) of this title, such sums of money as may be necessary to cover the payment of the amount of the interest and principal on outstanding irrigation bonds and on other obligations incurred by the Commonwealth for the purposes of carrying out improvements and extensions to the irrigation system authorized by law and payable on the ensuing fiscal year. The sums so withheld shall be covered into the Irrigation Fund for the above stated purposes. The withholdings herein authorized shall cease when the Commonwealth has finished paying the above-mentioned obligations.
History —Aug. 8, 1913, No. 128, p. 54, § 11; May 12, 1934, No. 45, p. 362; June 18, 1958, No. 41, p. 61, § 1; June 4, 1960, No. 49, p. 79; June 15, 1961, No. 67, p. 128; June 5, 1963, No. 45, p. 64; June 18, 1965, No. 54, p. 97, § 1; Dec. 6, 1966, No. 3, p. 10, § 1.