BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental is targeting to approve the proposed P5.7 billion budget of the provincial government by the second week of November, disclosed yesterday by its presiding officer, Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer.
The proposed budget, which increased by P1.3 billion compared to 2021, due to the implementation of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling of the Supreme Court, has already been forwarded to the SP committee on Finance chaired by Board member Rommel Debulgado, Ferrer said.
He added that Debulgado will set the schedules of the different offices and agencies of the provincial government to justify their respective budgets during deliberations, set to start this week.
Ferrer added that only major departments will be called to the budget deliberation hearings, especially the health, agriculture and Office of the Governor, among others.
The Mandanas-Garcia ruling allows local government units to have a just share from all taxes collected by the national government, and not only from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
With the additional sum in our National Tax Allocation, formerly known as the Internal Revenue Allotment, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson earlier said that the provincial government is required to provide programs, projects, and activities to be devolved from the national government.
Lacson also submitted the proposed P183, 846,174.37 budget for the operation of the Capitol Economic Enterprise Development Department.*
