THE local government units’ (LGUs) share in the state wealth next year would rise by 75 percent to P5.6 billion from P3.2 billion on the back of higher revenue collections in their jurisdictions, a House leader said on Sunday.
Deputy Speaker and Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said the fund would be allocated to provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays where “the economic utilization of resources such as energy reserves and mineral deposits is generating not only gainful employment, but also additional income for the national government.”
The P5.6-billion allocation is part of the government’s P4.1-trillion budget for next year, Pimentel added.
“The P5.6 billion is 75 percent higher than the P3.2 billion share of local governments this year in the money obtained from the productive use of the national wealth within their jurisdictions,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
Under the Local Government Code, LGUs are entitled to 40 percent of the National Treasury’s annual gross earnings “from mining taxes, royalties from mineral reservations, forestry charges, and fees and revenues collected from energy resources” on top of their internal revenue allotment, Pimentel said.
“Under the law, once the local governments receive their portions, they have to use the money to fund local development and livelihood projects,” Pimentel said.
“In the case of local governments that get their shares from the harvest of energy assets, they must use at least 80 percent of the money solely to reduce the cost of electricity in the communities that supplied the resources,” Pimentel said.
Pimentel said “regions that produce a lot of hydrothermal, geothermal and wind energy, as well as those with plenty of metallic mineral and coal mining activities, are expected to get the bulk of the new money.”