Pampanga records P1-B quarry revenues in 2023

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— Pampanga’s quarry collection for 2023 has reached P1.056 billion, the provincial government said on Thursday.

Data from the Office of the Provincial Treasurer (OPT) showed that Governor Dennis Pineda’s administration has collected some “P459.6 million in 2019, P609.6 million, and P782.5 million during the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020, and 2021, P738.6 million when the governor enforced the anti-overloading law in 2022, and P1.056 billion in 2023.”

Data showed that the 2023 collection has surpassed the previous annual collections of the province. Some P3.647 billion have been collected from 2019 to 2023.

These were generated through the P250 administrative fee and from the P150 sand tax as well as “various fees including penalties.”

The barangays, cities or towns, and province share the sand tax at 40-30-30 percent, respectively.

The Capitol retains the administrative fee to regulate the multi-million pesos quarry industry, bringing the net provincial share or revenues to over P2 billion in five years.

The collection ranked Pampanga “as the Top 3 among 10 provinces with the highest locally sourced revenues in 2021.

The province also got the 5th spot in collection efficiency that year, the Memorandum Circular No. 015-2022 of the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Local Government Finance show ed.

“Malaki po ang aking pagpapasalamat sa mga quarry associations at hauling companies dahil sa kanilang pagbabayad ng buwis, pagsunod sa ating mga patakaran at pagtalima sa batas kontra- overloading (I am extremely grateful to quarry associations and hauling companies for their payment of taxes, for adhering to our policies and obeying the anti-overloading law),” the governor said.

The governor thanked former Bacolor Mayor Romeo “Buddy” Dungca “for supervising well the regulatory unit Kalam (Kapampangan a Lulugud at Matapat).”