BAGUIO CITY: Sablan, Benguet Mayor Alfredo Dacumos said their town is ready to provide quality service to its constituents despite lower funding from the national government for next year.
“We will make both ends meet and we will work,” said Dacumos in a phone interview on Friday.
This, as the town would only receive PHP96 million in its National Tax Allotment (NTA) share from the national government in 2023, which will form part of its PHP112-million budget.
This is lower than this year’s PHP112 million NTA received by the town and slightly higher than the PHP83 million NTA in 2021.
Dacumos said the decrease in the town’s NTA was a result of the national government’s tax collection in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic struck and the economy was at a standstill.
He, however, said they are ready to perform services linked to devolution despite challenges in personnel hiring and other logistics-based issues.
Sablan, a town in Benguet province adjacent to this city via the Naguilian Road is heavily reliant on the NTA, formerly known as the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
With the devolution of functions, Dacumos said the local governments will be responsible to implement the project that used to be with the national government agencies. Such includes funding the implementation of the projects and financing the personnel expenditures of the workers who will also be devolved to the local government.
“We will slowly do the hiring of the personnel because we cannot afford to do it all at the same time. Multi-tasking is the possible immediate solution for now,” he added.
He said they might already utilize their savings.
The town does not have major industries except the micro hydro power plant of Aboitiz Power which is a source of revenue that they share with other host local government units.
He added that other revenues come from taxes paid by community stores and eateries aside from the limited real property taxes which are internally generated.
Source: Philippines News Agency