Binay seeks higher IRA for poorer areas

ITOGON, Benguet—Vice President Jejomar Binay said it is time to review the criteria for the distribution of the internal revenue allotment (IRA), stressing that poorer provinces, towns and villages should be given higher shares from taxes collected by the government.

“It is not right for rich municipalities to get higher IRA budgets. If you [municipality] are rich you should get lower IRA,” Binay said in his speech during this town’s 113th foundation anniversary program on Tuesday.

The IRA represents the local government’s 40-percent share from taxes collected by the government.

Towns are entitled to 34 percent of the IRA set aside in a year. Cities and provinces get 23 percent, while village governments get 20 percent.

Binay said towns, which have lower revenues need more financial assistance from government. He said poor local government services, facilities and infrastructure are all consequences of inadequate local government funds.

“How can they raise their revenue if they do not have enough funds to develop their municipality?” he said.

Binay urged the government to give less weight to a local government’s income when measuring how much IRA it would get.

He said the local revenue is among the criteria used to measure allocations, and the local government income represents 25 percent in the final computation.

According to the Department of Budget and Management’s Local Budget Memorandum No. 67, a local government’s population and land area are the primary factors for calculating the 2014 IRA.

Next year’s local government IRA totals P341.5 billion, according to the DBM memorandum, which is posted on the agency’s website (www.dbm.gov.ph).

Binay said the most common problem plaguing local governments today is increasing revenues.

“The country’s progress starts with the local governments, so the government should assist [them] in their bid to develop their resources and boost their own revenues,” he said.

Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan agreed. “In order to raise the per capita income of the people of Itogon, we need to provide job opportunities and we need more funds to do so,” he said.

Itogon, a first class town (with average annual income of at least P55 million), hosted the pioneer mining operations of the country beginning with Benguet Corp. Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon