Gov. Lacson welcomes NTA hike next year

The announcement of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that the national tax allotment (NTA) for local government units will increase to P871.38 billion was welcomed by Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.

“An increase is always good!,” Lacson said.

Negros Occidental has 12 component cities, 19 municipalities and one highly-urbanized city.

The DBM, in a statement on DBM on Friday, June 16, announced that LGUs nationwide will receive about P871.38 billion in 2024 based on their shares.

“The fiscal year 2024 NTA level is P51.11 billion or 6.23 percent higher than the fiscal year 2023 NTA shares of LGUs,” DBM said.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, in Local Budget Memorandum 87 issued on June 9, said the municipalities are entitled to an NTA share of P295.47 billion, cities with P201.22 billion, provinces with P200.42 billion, and barangays with P174.28 billion.

The 2024 NTA shares of LGUs are based on the tax collections of the government in 2021.
Lacson said there will be an increase of six percent from the 2023 budget but it is still short of 8 percent from the 2022 budget.

“As the economy improves, we can expect an increase in 2025 and the years thereafter,” the governor pointed out.

Under Section 284 of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, the LGUs shall get a 40 percent share in the national tax collections during the third fiscal year preceding the current fiscal year.

The DBM said the LGU’s P871.38 billion NTA shares for 2024 were based on the certifications (of taxes collected) issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (P688 billion), Bureau of Customs (P183.36 billion), and other agencies certified by the Bureau of the Treasury (P19.60 million).

Dramatic increases in NTA shares of LGUs were recorded in 2022 when the Supreme Court’s Mandanas-Garcia ruling was first implemented by the national government.

In that final ruling the high court mandated in 2019 that the 40 percent internal revenue allotment (IRA) share of LGUs should also include the “Bureau of Customs collections and other national taxes”.

Correspondingly, shares of LGUs in the 2023 NTA were reduced by 14.5 percent compared to 2022, as a result of shortfall in the 2020 collections during the COVID-19 pandemic where the 2023 NTA were based.

Asked if the increase in NTA will affect his administration’s priority projects, Lacson said “we will go as far as our budget can.”* (Eugene Y. Adiong)