Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (Rep. Villafuerte's Facebook)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte said local government units (LGUs) will have more resources to spend next year on programs benefitting senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and children following the increase in the national tax allotment (NTA) for 2025.

As part of the Marcos administration’s proposed P6.352-trillion budget proposal for 2025, the NTA shares for LGUs will be raised to P1.03 trillion.

This is 18.7 percent higher than this year’s allotment of P871.38 billion.

According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the NTA for LGUs was made significantly higher amid the country’s continued economic recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on a DBM report, the P1.03 trillion shall be divided among 83 provinces, 149 cities, 1,485 municipalities, and 41,905 barangays. 

In a statement, Villafuerte said next year’s NTA represents the new computation for the 40 percent share of LGUs from revenue collections as a result of the Supreme Court’s (Sc) landmark ruling in 2018 on the Mandanas-Garcia case.

Under this ruling, the LGUs’ “just share” of taxes should not be limited to collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), but must also include collections by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and other agencies.

Of the P1.03 trillion NTA for 2025, P776.56 billion will come from the BIR, P258 billion from the BOC; and P41.36 million from other agencies certified by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).

“Hence, our local executives will have fiscal space to spend bigger in 2025 on their development programs, as well as on PPAs (programs, projects and activities) for the benefit of our elderly, PWDs, women and for the protection of our children, among others,” said Villafuerte.

As advised by the DBM, he said LGUs must coordinate with the appropriate revenue-collection agencies and state-run corporations in their respective localities to reconcile their records with those of these offices so they can determine the exact amount of tax shares due them.

Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), noted that LGUs should prioritize the utilization of their NTA shares for the provision of basic services and facilities.

He said portions of their respective budget could be spent on senior citizens, PWDs, protection of children, gender and development (GAD), prevention of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and disaster risk reduction and management.

The lawmaker pointed out that under Republic Act (RA) No. 7160 or the Local Government Code, 20 percent of the NTA shall go to the development programs of LGUs.