NegOcc’s 2022 budget up by P1.4 billion

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the provincial government’s budget is projected to increase by P1.4 billion next year because of the Mandanas ruling.

The governor said that all the collections of the Bureau of Customs and other taxes will be included in the computation of the National Tax Allotment, formerly known as the Internal Revenue Allotment.

The Mandanas ruling is a 2018 Philippine Supreme Court decision asserting that the bases of the computations of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) for local government units (LGUs) are erroneous, thus denying LGUs a just share of the IRA.

The proposed 2022 budget is P5 billion, Lacson said.

The governor said this will be submitted next month for deliberations by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Lacson said the proposed budget will be spread out to agriculture, education, infrastructure, and health, among others.

But because of COVID-19, the provincial government has to make sure to sustain another year of pandemic, just in case it lingers on.

The Mandanas-Garcia ruling resulted from the petition of Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Governor Enrique Garcia Jr. before the Supreme Court on local government shares in the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

At present, LGU’s IRA comes from 40 percent of national internal revenue taxes collected by the BIR.

With the Mandanas-Garcia ruling implementation in 2022, it is projected that LGUs will enjoy a 27.61 percent increase in their IRA shares.