Negros Occ sees lower 2023 budget

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said that provincial government sees a lower budget in 2023.

The budget cut is inevitable despite the Mandanas ruling of Supreme Court (SC) that allowed an increase in the internal revenue allotment of local government units (LGUs), Lacson said.

He said tax collections in the last three years before the ruling came out was “very, very bad” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Negros Occidental’s budget for 2022 is P5.7 billion, which is P600 million higher compared to 2021.

But the budget for 2023 has yet to be formulated by the provincial government of Negros Occidental, Lacson said.

Under the Mandanas ruling penned by the Supreme Court in 2018, all LGUs are entitled to “a just share on all national taxes collected, not only from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, effective 2022.”

LGUs get their IRA from 40 percent of national internal revenue taxes collected by the BIR.

The Mandanas Garcia ruling is projected to increase the IRA of LGUs by 27.61 percent.