(PNA Bacolod file photo)
BACOLOD CITY – This highly urbanized city’s annual budget is set to breach the PHP4-billion mark in 2025, from only PHP3.6 billion this year, estimates as of Wednesday showed.
Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said when he assumed in 2022, the annual budget was only PHP3.2 billion.
“After three years, we are now at PHP4.2 billion. That’s an additional billion increase in our proposed 2025 budget,” he said in a media interview.
He said next year, the city expects to get its national tax allotment (NTA) share of PHP2.234 billion, almost PHP300 million higher than the amount this year.
This 2024, Bacolod has an NTA share of PHP1.97 billion, which comprises 55 percent of the total budget, while 45 percent, or PHP1.63 billion, is expected to come from local sources.
The city’s NTA share in 2023 was at PHP1.85 billion.
During his State of the City Address last month, Benitez said the city is on its way to achieving PHP1.7 billion in local revenues for 2024 because of increased collection efficiency.
Data from the City Treasurer’s Office showed that in 2023, Bacolod generated PHP1.449 billion from local taxes, regulatory fees, and other charges, which is PHP500 million higher than the PHP1.009 billion total collection in 2019, a year before the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020.
Local revenues dropped to only PHP956.117 million in 2020, then to PHP940.355 million in 2021.
Indicating a recovery, total collection hit PHP1.137 billion in 2022 and increased further to PHP1.449 billion in 2023. (PNA)
