A glimpse of the Cebu City’s mix of nature and development. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City expects a larger internal revenue allotment (IRA) from the national government in 2022 as the Mandanas Ruling by the Supreme Court takes effect.
The Mandanas Ruling increases the share of national government tax revenue transferred to local government units (LGUs), which was among the recommendation of the World Bank.
Cebu City will be among the LGUs who will benefit greatly with the Mandanas Ruling taking effect as the city will see a raise of P900 million on its IRA starting 2022.
Normally, Cebu City only gets P2.3 billion per year from the IRA, which is then used for the annual budget or supplemental budgets in the year that follows.
This time, the city is expected to receive P3.2 billion per year from the IRA, almost a billion higher than before.
Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, the local committee chairperson, said in a phone conference that they recently received advise from the national government over the increased IRA.
The national government is already asking LGUs to consider into their 2022 annual budgets the increased IRA and the devolved agencies that may have to be covered by the city.
“This means that the city government will have more budget for its operations. However it has to cover the cost as well because the national government will devolve some of its functions,” said Garcia.
The city government has yet to receive the guidelines for the devolution of certain agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Health (DOH), among others.
These will need to be considered as this is an additional expense for the city government. The city has yet to determine which departments will be devolved and to what extent.
Still, Garcia said the increased IRA is a huge difference for the city as the budget can be used for additional programs, infrastructure, disaster response, schools, and hospitals.
With more funds in its coffers, the city will have a chance to expand its services to the public as well.
/bmjo
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