13 LGUs earn P1B from Clark, Subic firms

CLARK FREEPORT – At least 13 local government units (LGUs) received P1.02 billion as shares in tax paid by nearly 4,000 enterprises in Clark and Subic Bay freeports in 2018, reports showed.

Angeles and Mabalacat cities and Porac town in Pampanga province, Bamban and Capas towns in Tarlac province received a total of P800 million as their 2-percent shares from the 5-percent tax on gross income earned (GIE) by businesses in Clark, according to Noel Manankil, president and chief executive officer of the state-owned Clark Development Corp.

The exact share of each LGU cannot be determined because the law, Republic Act No. 9400, required companies to directly remit the tax to local treasurers, Manankil said.

RA 9400, enacted in 2007, amended RA 7227 or the Base Conversion and Development Act, the legal framework of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority for turning former the United States military bases into economic hubs.

Mabalacat City must have received 85 percent, or more than P500 million, of the shares because the companies preferred to locate on that side of the free port, Manankil added.

Eight LGUs in Zambales and Bataan received P222.13 million as shares in the second half of 2018, according to Wilma Eisma, chair and administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

As distributed by the SBMA in checks last March 1, Olongapo City received P51.7 million; Subic town, P33.9 million; San Marcelino, P26.6 million; Castillejos, P20.8 million; and San Antonio, P19.035 million, all in Zambales. In Bataan, Dinalupihan generated P33.9 million; Hermosa, P23.1 million and Morong, P19.303 million.

RA 9400 set the sharing based on population, land area and equal sharing at 50, 25 and 25 percent.