BAGUIO CITY– The local government has set a target of additional P300 million income from internally generated sources next year to help in increasing its revenue-generating capacity from existing businesses in the city.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said that in his recent meeting with members of the local finance committee, it was agreed that the local government project an ambitious P300 million target next year to improve the city’s standing on the optimum generation of resources from existing potential income generators in the city.
He said that based on the latest figures from the City Treasury Office, the local government’s income from internal sources increased by P22 million as of the middle of December amidst the city’s aggressive campaign to close the operation of businesses that continue to operate without the benefit of securing the required permits from the city.
The local chief executive stated that the projected target collection of additional income next year is really a huge one but there is a need to peg a significant increase considering that the city had been stagnant over the past 7 years without increase in its revenue generating measures.
According to him, the strategies that will be undertaken increasing revenues will be discussed with the members of the local legislative body for their approval so that concerned offices will be able to implement the collection of added revenues to help in achieving the so-called target collection.
Based on the data from the approved P2.255 billion annual budget of the local government next year, the city’s internally generated revenues amount to over P1.4 billion while its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) being annually provided by the national government is more than P800 million which indicates that the city is not actually dependent on its IRA from the nation government.
Part of the measures that will be implemented by the offices of the local government is the revision of various revenue measures that will support the proposed increase in revenue collection wherein the funds that will be generated will be plowed back to the people through the implementation of priority high impact development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people in the grassroots level.
Baguio City is the only local government in the Cordillera administrative Region (CAR) that is not IRA dependent because of the existence of numerous businesses that pay their taxes to the city for their sustainable operations.
In 2009, the Philippine Commission approved the declaration of Baguio City as one of the first two chartered cities in the country that paved the way for its robust development for over a century aside from garnering numerous regional, national and international recognitions as one of the best cities in the global village.
Baguio City was able to recover from the rubbles of the July 16, 1990 killer earthquake that saw the resurgence of economic activities thereby providing decent sources of livelihood for the rapidly increasing population and for the benefit of the present and future inhabitants of the different places in the city.
By Dexter A. See