BONTOC, Mountain Province – Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. raised concern on the significant reduction of the province’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) or National Tax Allocation (NATA) for next year which will surely affect the delivery of quality basic services to the people and impact on the implementation of high impact development projects programmed for the growth and development of communities.
Lacwasan disclosed that from the P1.243.7 billion IRA of the province for this year, this dropped to only P1.063.8 billion for next year because of the significant reduction of the government’s revenue in 2020 which was the height of the implementation of lockdowns to contain the rapid spread of the COVID-19.
He claimed that because of the huge reduction on the province’s NATA for next year, the provincial government will implement belt tightening and austerity measures to ensure that the delivery of quality basic services will not be affected.
The governor pointed out that it is understandable there will be a reduction on the IRA or NATA for local governments next year because of the effect of the pandemic to the global economy that is why efforts are being done to ensure that the annual budget of the provincial government will not be compromised with the cut on the share from the national revenue as all local governments are actually in a similar situation.
According to him, lower class municipalities, like those in the province, are also experiencing a significant cut on their respective NATA that is why it will be very difficult for the local governments to implement their desired priority projects without appropriate assistance from concerned government agencies and the national government to augment their meager share from the revenue generated by the government at the height of the pandemic.
For her part, Provincial Budget Officer Florence Got-omen stipulated that the basis of the IRA or NATA of local governments will be the revenue collection of the government 3 years preceding the fiscal year that is why the IRA or NATA of local governments for 2023 will be based on the government’s revenue in 2020 which was heavily impacted by the ongoing pandemic.
She revealed that the government’s revenue in 2020 declined by 9 percent compared to its 2019 revenue which was the basis for the IRA or NATA of local governments for the current year.
Got-omen explained that from the P3.22 trillion generated revenue by the government in 2019, it significantly dropped in 2020 to only P2.86 billion or short of more than P58 billion which reflects the IRA or NATA reduction of all local governments.
The provincial budget officer added that the IRA or NATA of local governments for this year already includes their share from the ruling of the Supreme Court on the case filed by Mandanas and Garcia on the computation of the government’s revenue that is supposed to include revenues generated by all revenue generating offices of the government.