Fiscal Discipline, Transparency Fuel Calasiao’s Revenue Growth

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – The fiscal discipline and transparency of the Caramat Administration earned it the “Zero Disallowance” citation from the Commission on Audit (COA) and award from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) while it earned a significant revenue growth last year and the first quarter of 2026.

ZERO DISALLOWANCE

Mayor Patrick A. Caramat said that the Zero Disallowance given for the last year’s feat of the town showed that the taxpayers money collected by his administration was not squandered.

“Nangunguhulugan po ito na ang bawat Peso ay ginagasto na naayon sa batas, malinis, at mahigpit na at naayon sa mga patakaran,” he said.

Zero Disallowance by the COA means an agency or local government unit has fully complied with all financial rules, resulting in zero disapproved, illegal, or improper money transactions and no funds that public officers must return.

GOOD FINANCIAL HOUSEKEEPING

He cited the Good Financial Housekeeping (GFH) awarded by the DILG last June 18, 2026.

GFH is an annual assessment program by the DILG that evaluates local government units for financial transparency, accountability, and the responsible use of public funds. To earn the GFH seal, local governments must meet two primary criteria: receiving an unqualified or qualified audit opinion from the COA and fully complying with the Full Disclosure Policy (FDP).

“We have positioned Calasiao as very credible and highly participative local government unit when we designed our 2026 Annual Budget kasama po natin ang ating mga NGOs, ang ating mga CSO on vital public sectors even the national agencies and even the heads or the supervisors of the Department of Education pag tayo po ang gumagawa ng pondo. We do this to ensure the open light of transparency”.

AMENDED REVENUE CODE AND BULLISH COLLECTION

The New Revenue Code of Calasiao approved last year has been boosting the treasury after his administration collected P89, 329, 239. 41 from the individuals through business, real property, and community taxes for the first quarter of 2026.

Compare to the P69.6 million taxes collected in the first quarter of 2025, the assortment grew by more than P19.73 million.

Caramat cited the means how he and his administration achieve them.

“Streamlining our process with proper monitoring, our BPLO or the Business Percent Licensing Office reported a consistent upward trajectory on local economic activity and administrative productivity in business permit release from July to December 2025 compared to the June period in 2024. These months successfully carried into the next half year by January to June 2026 going further increase over the previous year”.

He praised his constituents for the confidence they gave to the personnel of the municipality by chalking up these accomplishments.

SPIKE ON TRICYCLE PERMITS

The young Mayor cited how the application for the permits of motorized tricycles jumped to forty four percent (44%) in the first semester of 2026 compared to the same semester last year.

“Parallel to the commercial sector the tricycle permit application experiences a permit significant forty four percent (44%) growth from January to June 2026 compared to 2025 reflecting heightened compliance and a thriving transport sector,” he stressed.

HALF-BILLION-PESO BUDGET

This first-class burgeoning town has an annual appropriation budget (AAB) of ₱517,181,838.00 for this year. This not to mention the supplemental budget of ₱22,330,500.00 for 2026 the officialdom passed. With the more than half a billion budget, the municipality becomes part of the more or less eight towns out of the 44 municipalities in Pangasinan dubbed as the “richest” Half-Billion -Peso Club Towns

The AAB of the LGUs all over the country comes from the national tax allotment, external shares or grants, and local taxes.