BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer has fulfilled his promise on early approval of the 2022 budget of the province.
This was after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental unanimously approved yesterday the P5.7 billion budget of the province for next year.
Prior to its approval, marathon hearings and deliberations of budgets of various Capitol departments were conducted by the SP committee on Finance, which lasted two weeks.
Board Member Jeffrey Tubola yesterday said that budgets for COVID-19 campaign and health related activities have been given priority in budget allocations.
Tubola also said that the SP also approved the P183,846,173 budget of the provincial government Economic Enterprise Development.
The P5.7 billion budget for 2022 increased by P1.3 billion, which triggered by ruling of the Supreme Court that requires all collections of the Commission on Customs and other taxes will be included in the computation of the National Tax Allotment (NTA), otherwise known as the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
“We are in a pandemic, so we would like to make sure that we are responsive to the needs of the people,” Ferrer earlier said.
A big chunk of the proposed P5,719,337,346 budget for 2022 has been earmarked to Special Purpose Appropriations (SPA) pegged at P2,142,140,592, or 37.45 percent.*
