Puerto Princesa City is set to start budget hearings on a proposed P3.78B appropriation for 2020, an increase of 15% from this year’s P3.2B allocation.
City budget officer Regina Cantillo said that the budget allocation increase is based on the relative increase of our national share on expected revenue and local income.
“Our local income is P144M while our Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) for 2020 is P365M,” Cantillo said.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed with finality that the LGUs’ “just shares” must be computed and sourced from all national taxes which now includes the Bureau of Customs (BOC) collection of taxes, tariffs, and other BOC duties. This results in all LGUs sharing P1.5T IRA backpay starting 1992.
Cantillo is hoping for the city council’s appropriation to finish by the end of November so CBO can submit the final budget allocation for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approval. She also said that their office is anticipating to conduct area procurement for the city’s 2020 projects before the year ends.
“Recently, the city council approved the increase of financial assistance for senior citizens and persons with disability (PWD) which requires P125M. We also have P640M budget requirement for the infrastructure development mostly centered on concreting of roads,” Cantillo said.
