MAJORITY of municipalities in Eastern Visayas have remained poor, falling under fourth to sixth class brackets, the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) said, citing the latest round of reclassification.
BLGF Assistant Regional Director Teresita Atuel said they are not positive that many local government units (LGUs) will join the higher status considering the low local tax collection improvement this year.
“The current performance of LGUs in the region indicates that only few areas will attain higher status in the 2012 reclassification,” Atuel told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Out of the 136 municipalities in the region, five were categorized as sixth class, 55 were fifth class, 43 were fourth class, 16 were third class, 11 were second class, and only six were first class.
A municipality can be classified as first class if they have an average income of P55 million, second class (P45 million but less than P55 million), third class (P35 million but less than P45 million), fourth class (P25 million but less than P35 million), fifth class (P15 million but less than P25 million), sixth class (below P15 million).
The income classification of LGUs serves as basis for the determination of the financial capability of a province, city or municipality to provide the funding requirements of developmental project and other priority needs in their locality.
The classification of LGU is used to determine the amount expendable for personnel services.
A preliminary BLGF report for January to June 2011 obtained by Leyte Samar Daily Express showed that the region collected P241.9 million in real property taxes (RPT), which represents only 38% of the 2011 target of P629.8 million.
LGUs only generated P149.7 million for fees and charges representing 37% of the annual goal, P183.8 million for economic enterprise accounting 47% of the yearly target.
“The region performed better in the collection of business tax with P26.7-million revenue or an achievement of 60% of the 2011 goal,” said Lina Teresita Go, BLGF senior local treasury examiner.
Among the six provinces of Eastern Visayas, only Leyte and Samar attained the first class.
Listed as second class were Eastern Samar and Northern Samar. Southern Leyte and Biliran fell under third and fourth income class, respectively.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government earlier called on LGUs to initiative income generating activities and not just depend on shares from internal revenue allotment. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)
