By BOY RYAN B. ZABAL
KALIBO, Aklan — All six provinces in Western Visayas were highly dependent on Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), according to the latest Tax Watch of the Department of Finance.
Aklan, however, was the least IRA-dependent among the six and the country’s 80 provinces.
IRA is the local government units’ (LGUs) share of revenues from the national government to fund basic services and facilities.
More than 80 percent (P5,704,740,305) of financial resources of LGUs in the country last year were sourced from IRA.
Last year’s income of Western Visayas’ six provinces was estimated at P6,780,026,789.
Aklan had earned P1,086,539,625.
Of the amount, P594,784,304 (about 54.7 percent) was sourced from IRA, while P491,755,321 (45.3 percent) sourced from local taxes and other nontax revenues.
Capiz was the most dependent on IRA, with 92.20 percent or P731,991,175 of its P793,924,510 income sourced from national government revenues, the Tax Watch said.
Most provinces in Western Visayas received larger IRA shares because of their big population and land area, the report noted.
While Iloilo had an annual regular income of P1,539,102,476, the biggest chunk of it — about 91.5 percent or P1,408,785,600 — was derived from IRA.
Of Iloilo’s income last year, 8.5 percent, or P130,316,876, was generated from local sources, data from the Finance department showed.
Negros Occidental also depended heavily on IRA, which composed 88.8 percent, or P1,877,596,143, of its P2,114,579,794 annual regular income.
Antique also got 88.2 percent, or P764,439,219, of its total internal funds from IRA last year.
It generated a total income of P866,574,225 last year, but got only 11.8 percent, or P102,135,006, from local sources.
Guimaras also sourced P327,143,864, or 86.2 percent of its total revenue, from IRA.
It earned last year P379,306,159, of which 13.8 percent, or P52,162,295, was derived from its own revenue resources. (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
