Hearing for Bacolod City’s P3.2-B budget for 2023 set in November
THE SANGGUNIANG Panlungsod (SP) of Bacolod will conduct a series of hearings for the proposed P3.250 billion annual budget of the city for 2023 in November, a city official said yesterday, October 13.
Councilor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, chairperson of the City Council’s committee on appropriation and finance, said they already received the proposed P3.250 billion budget of Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez for next year.
Sayson said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier announced that the national tax allotment (NTA), formerly known as Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), share of local government units (LGUS) will be reduced next year.
“For Bacolod, the city’s NTA will be reduced by P300 million. In order to recover this reduction, our mayor also talked with our finance committee to be more efficient in collections like the Land Tax Office, Permits and Licensing Division, Office of the Building Official, among others,” he added.
Sayson noted that the proposed budget is the same as this year’s annual budget, as he explained that the city council can only reduce the proposed budget and they cannot add on it or realign the budget.
“It’s our role to check the budget if it complies with the requirements,” Sayson said.
He said the proposed annual budget include the city’s personnel with 28 percent or with a budget of P910 million; 43 percent for the maintenance or P1.4 billion; special purpose appropriation - 11 percent or P357 million; development fund - 11 percent or P357 million; additional equipment- 4.5 percent or P447 million; and financial expenses - two percent or P62 million.
“It’s a very balanced distribution of the city’s proposed budget especially, the priority projects of our mayor,” he added.*