Limay, 2nd top municipality in generating locally sourced revenues

LIMAY, Bataan -The Department of Finance (DOF) has listed Limay as the country’s second top municipality in generating locally sourced revenues. The municipality placed second in a survey conducted from fiscal year 2010 to 2012 among 286 municipalities in the Philippines.

The Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) of the DOF has recently posted a full-page advertisement in major newspapers listing the top 10 first class municipalities generating locally sourced revenues. The advertisement highlighted how local government units (LGUs) manage the taxpayers’ money by showing how dependent the LGUs are on the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

The data showed that Limay has a 79.89 percent dependence on local income, or only 20.11 percent dependence on national government revenue. In 2010, dependence on local revenues was at 58 percent. It rose to 73.6 percent in 2011, and hit 79.9 percent in 2012.

Limay’s dependence on local income includes real property taxes, business and other taxes, regulatory fees, service/user charges, and income from economic enterprises aside from the total regular income of the municipality.

For the evaluated period, Limay’s Assessor, License and Permits, and Treasury departments under the leadership of Mayor Ver Roque, had realized the revenues through increased tax and fees campaigns, and efficient local collection efforts.  DOF measures and monitors the transparency and governance of LGUs.

The department has instituted LGU Fiscal Sustainability Scorecard to supervise and monitor the revenue operations of the LGUs and their thrust to promote good governance at all levels, and assess their fiscal performance. Based on the scorecard, Limay’s performance was measured in four key result areas: revenue generation capacity, local collection growth, expenditure management, and timeliness in report submission.

Revenue generation capacity measured levels of Limay’s income, growth, and how much it’s economy depended on locally sourced and IRA incomes. Local collection growth measured municipality’s growth in tax and non-tax revenues, which all posted aboveboard figures for the period.

On the other hand, expenditure management measured Limay’s use of funds, where, on the average, over 20 percent of the IRA was used for local development projects such as infrastructure. Noteworthy is the fact that the municipality has no debt service arrangements due to its financial stewardship.