Robredo to LGUs: Spend IRA wisely in 2012

MINALIN, Pampanga ,Philippines  – Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo urged mayors in this province to be judicious in the use of their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) shares, which would be lower by 4.8 percent next year.

Robredo said the lower IRA is a “big challenge” to local officials even as he called on them to spend it wisely.

He said the 4.8 percent IRA reduction was prompted by lower national tax collections in the past three years. The national tax collection in 2009 alone was 4.8 percent lower compared to 2008, he noted.

“This means (that local government units must exercise) more judicious use of government money and at the same time more focus on local revenue mobilization,” he said.

Robredo came here last Saturday as a guest during the declaration of this town’s Sta. Monica parish church as a national cultural treasure by the National Museum.

His appeal elicited various reactions from Pampanga mayors.

Angeles City Mayor Ed Pamintuan for one said his city government is not likely to suffer from the IRA reduction, noting that the Angeles’ economy has made a “significant turnaround” and they are now less dependent on the IRA.

“Our daily cash balance has never gone below P100 million despite the inherited debt of P17 million in electric bills alone,” he said.

He reported that apart from pushing revenue-raising programs, their local economy has also been boosted by the cut in the city hall’s workforce by about 65 percent. From a daily cash balance of no less than P100 million, the city government now has a cash position of P297 million, he said.

But Mayor Eddie Guerrero of the fourth class municipality of Floridablanca lamented that the sudden decrease of IRA for next year was “too much.”

He added that the reduction “negates fiscal autonomy as mandated by the Local Government Code.”

Mayor Ric Rivera of Guagua town meanwhile noted that it would be the first time that IRAs of local government units will be reduced.