P’sinan Crows P7-B Budget for 2025

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The first class Province of Pangasinan will be implementing a P7 billion annual appropriation budget for the fiscal year of 2025, its governor declared.

PANGASINAN top two elected officials. Governor Ramon V. Guico III (left) and Vice Governor Mark Ronald Lambino flash a victory sign to all and sundry.

“Economically, we are budgeting a P7 billion annual budget for 2025. Sa tingin po natin achievable,” Governor Ramon V. Guico III partly mentioned about the provincial government budget in a speech during the grand homecoming ceremony of 2024 Miss World International Philippines Nikki Buenafe held recently at the Sison Auditorium at the Capitol Complex here.

The budget is higher by P1.3 billion compared to the P5.7 billion appropriation given by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP or provincial lawmaking body) to the Guico Administration, according to Vice Governor Mark Ronald Lambino – the topman of the legislature - when asked by reporters on the statement of the governor.

“Tumaas po ang NTA (national tax allotment) o iyong IRA (internal revenue allotment) ng probinsiya. Aside from that ay tataas po iyong projected natin na locally generated income ng lalawigan kaya umabot po sa mahigit kumulang sa P1.3 billion ang itataas of the 2025 annual budget,” Lambino stressed.

The P1.3 billion increase would be mostly taken from the NTA – the successor of the IRA – given yearly by the national government from the taxes mostly taken from the value added tax (VAT) of the Filipinos.

The increase has been culled from the three years preceeding the the current year of 2025 of the share of the province from the NTA on the revenue collected by the national government as mandated by the Local Government Code. The budget of 2025 is based on the fiscal year of 2022.

Forty percent (40%) of the revenue collected every year by the national government is allocated fairly to the provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays all over the country.

Lambino said the share is much bigger compared to the allocation in 2024 of the provincial government from the NTA because 2022 was the year the economy had been recovering to the crippling scourge of the pandemic brought by the Corona Virus Disease-19 in year 2020.

Governor Guico cited too how the taxes and fees on the quarry operation and the collections by the fourteen provincial government owned hospitals will swell the 2025 coffer.

Experts estimate that the Guico Administration can collect between P200 million to P300 milion this year from the quarry. The collection of the quarry operations in 2022  was a pathetic P12 million only. The first semester of that year was under the governance of then Governor Amado Espino III.

“We have to improve our administrative function regarding the filing of our PhilHealth claim to improve that mas malaki ang papasok sa mga hospital kasi iyon ay dati iyong nagbibigay ng malaking pagkalugi e. Pero ngayon we are focusing on the better hospital services for the same efficient collection kaya natatarget natin ang mga collection na target natin”.

Lambino said the P7 billion budget can be achieved as it is based on the evaluation of the Finance Committee, the Offices of the Budget and Treasury.

“Kung meron pong sumobra po diyan o lumagpas o tumaas po ang ating collection tayo na lang po ay magpa file ng supplemental budget for that”.

The provincial government will not increase taxes as “tataas lang po ang efficiency ng pangungulekta sa mga existing na mga ordinances that will generate a locally generated income ng ating probinsiya,” the second highest elected official of the gargantuan province added.