MANILA – The total current operating income of the local government units (LGUs) rose from PHP738.54 billion in 2019 to PHP825.2 billion last year, representing an increase of PHP86.66 billion or 12 percent, as a result of their higher internal revenue allotment (IRA) and improved local tax collections.
In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) said the increase in the 2020 current operating income of provinces, cities, and municipalities is mostly attributed to the 18-percent growth in the external revenue sources of LGUs, including the IRA, which amounted to PHP509.65 billion, or 11 percent more than the PHP457.15 billion they received in 2019.
BLGF Executive Director Niño Raymond Alvina said that although local tax collections increased in 2020 to PHP189.86 billion from PHP183.46 billion in 2019, their share in the current operating income of LGUs declined to 23 percent in 2020 from 25 percent in 2019.
The share of non-tax revenues, which amounted to PHP61.79 billion in 2020, also decreased to 7 percent compared to 10 percent in 2019 when collections reached PHP70.36 billion.
Alvina said LGUs’ dependence on external sources, comprised of IRA and other transfers to the LGUs, as a ratio of their operating income last year, has increased to 70 percent as compared to 66 percent in 2019.
“In aggregate terms, LGUs dependence on external sources in fiscal year (FY) 2020 reached 70 percent, which is 18 percent or PHP88.83 billion higher than 2019 levels. On IRA dependence, provinces showed the highest dependency ratio at 78 percent, followed by municipalities (74 percent) and cities (42 percent) in FY 2020,” Alvina said.
Besides the IRA, the other external revenue sources of LGUs are other transfers from the national government (NG), which amounted to PHP63.9 billion in 2020, or 132 percent higher than the PHP27.57 billion in 2019, he added.
The share of these other sources in the current operating incomes of LGUs grew to 8 percent in 2020, or 4 percent higher than in 2019.
Revenues from local sources totaled PHP251.65 billion in 2020, representing a slight decline of 1 percent or PHP2.23 billion from the PHP253.88 billion the previous year.
Alvina said that based on the collection performance targets for locally sourced revenues (LSRs) issued by the BLGF to LGU treasurers, the provinces, cities, and municipalities surpassed the 2020 adjusted final target, collecting PHP244.19 billion out of the PHP192.24 billion goal in 2020.
“This represents a 127-percent collection efficiency,” he said.
LSRs cover collections from the real property tax (RPT), local business tax (LBT), fees and charges (FC), and receipts from economic enterprise (REE).
Revenues from the LBT of PHP119.31 billion, which account for 49 percent of the LSR, reached 137 percent of the full-year target.
The efficiency of RPT collections, which totaled PHP70.55 billion, reached 127 percent, Alvina said.
The collection efficiency for fees and charges (PHP33.33 billion) and REE (PHP21 billion), respectively attained 111 percent and 110 percent, based on the adjusted targets for 2020.
Alvina said the cities collected the most LSR at PHP171.90 billion, which is 70 percent of the total LSR of all LGUs, followed by the municipalities and provinces, with PHP44.72 billion (18 percent) and PHP27.57 billion (11 percent), respectively.
As in the previous years, the National Capital Region (NCR) posted the highest LSR collections, which reached PHP101.94 billion or 42 percent of the total LSR of all LGUs, Alvina said.
This was followed by Region 4A (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-
Aside from NCR, only Regions 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 posted positive growth rates in LSR collections, while mostly all other regions in Luzon and the Visayas registered declines, Alvina said.
For 2021, the BLGF is actively monitoring the LGUs’ quarterly fiscal performance as it expects lower revenues this year, since the local taxes will be based on the gross receipts of business establishments in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic started. (PR)
