Urdaneta earns more on Local Taxes than IRA – Bobom

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Mayor Amadeo Gregorio Perez III

URDANETA CITY – If many towns and cities are internal revenue allotment (IRA) dependent on the national government, this robust city earns more on its local taxes.
Mayor Amadeo Gregorio Perez III said that that the first class city operates on a more than P600 million budget this year where P260 million came from the IRA.
With the P250 million, this 125,451 populated city according to the 2010 Census is backed up by the more than P350 million local funds.
The Local Government Code says that the allocation formula of IRA in a town, city, or province is 50%, 25%, and 25% for the population, land area, and equal sharing from the national taxes.
Perez cited this  city owned Urdaneta City University as the major source of the local revenue.
“May UCU kasi more than P140 million (yearly income)”.
He said however that what UCU churned out goes to the university’s coffer.
UCU used to producte P200 million a year.
When asked if the revenue’s of the school declined be blamed to the demand slumped of nurses abroad, Perez instead said that UCU is huge with 15,000 students.
The mayor said the drivers of the economic growth here have been the construction binged of infrastructure facilities and farm-to-market roads.
Building of these facilities not only generates jobs to people but expedites movement of goods and services, he said.
One of the big ticket businesses that put shop here was the Agri-Pinoy Trading Center (APTC)
Building of APTCs throughout the country is in line with President Benigno Aquino III continuing efforts to enable small farmers earn more profit. Farmers here for instance will now have a venue where they can market their products directly to institutional buyers.
Urdaneta is known as cattle and vegetable hub in Northern Luzon,

Another investment that entered here last January was the 144 vendor stalls’ Xentromart Bagsakan (entrepot) considered as the biggest agri-trade center in Pangasinan.
 APTC, Xentromart, and others are expected not only to provide thousands of livelihood opportunities for residents but additional revenues for the local government.
In 2013, this city led the cities in Region 1 with the highest annual appropriation of P637 million, while the cities of Dagupan, and Laoag have P612 million and P575 million, respectively.