BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The approval of the proposed P5.7 billion budget of Negros Occidental provincial government for 2022 appears to be early compared to last year.
Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer yesterday said that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental is up for approval on third and final reading the proposed budget next week, as they are now wrapping up the budget deliberations this week.
The speedy deliberations of proposed budget this year came after the SP targeted its completion within two weeks, with major Capitol division offices have been only invited to defend their respective budgets.
If there are no additional proposals, they will approve the proposed budget by next week, compared to approval of 2021 budget, which was done by the final week of November last year.
While there are some small questions in the infrastructure projects of Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, Ferrer said it was expected due to the ongoing pandemic and weather disturbances, which is understandable.
But it is justifiable, he stressed.
But Ferrer said the delivery of basic services, especially the approach on pandemic, remains good.
The proposed P5.7 billion budget for 2022 increased by P1.3 billion as reported by Lacson, due the Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court which said 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).*
