Bigger budgets ahead for LGUs as NTA hits PHP 1.4 trillion

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

PAVIA, ILOILO — Local government units can expect more money in 2027, with the National Tax Allotment projected to reach its highest level yet, plus additional support from national government allocations.

Executive Secretary Ralph Recto told local media on Tuesday, Aug. 25, that the NTA for 2027 is pegged at PHP 1.4 trillion.

The figure follows PHP 1.19 trillion in 2026, PHP 1.03 trillion in 2025, and PHP 871.38 billion in 2024.

“Next year, the NTA will increase to about roughly PHP 1.4 trillion, the highest in the country’s history. It’s something like an 11 percent increase. All of those will be automatically given to provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays,” Recto said.

The NTA for a given year comes from taxes collected three years earlier. The 2026 allotment, for instance, is expected to be derived from collections as of 2023.

The allotment replaced the Internal Revenue Allotment beginning 2022, after the Supreme Court ruled in the consolidated Mandanas-Garcia cases that the local share should be computed from all national taxes rather than from Bureau of Internal Revenue collections alone. Local governments receive 40 percent of that base under the Local Government Code.

Recto said LGUs will also see an increase in the Local Government Support Fund, which is set at PHP 58 billion.

The LGSF is appropriated under the national budget and administered by the Department of Budget and Management.

The money is then downloaded to local governments to implement national programs or to serve as financial assistance for local projects, among other purposes.

The executive secretary was in Pavia to distribute rice under the Bawat Bayan Makikinabang program of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The rice was procured with a PHP 5 million allocation downloaded to the Pavia local government from the almost PHP 58-billion LGSF in the 2026 budget.