Senate bill filed to up LGUs’ share from nat’l wealth tax

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has filed a bill increasing local government units’ share from the national wealth tax.

Pimentel's Senate Bill 2045 seeks to amend Section 284 of Republic Act 7160 “by expanding the tax base from where the sharing is made between the national and local governments and by giving LGUs a bigger share or slice of the expanded tax base.”

Known as the “Bigger Pie, Bigger Slice” bill, Pimentel said the measure seeks to change the limited internal revenue allocations (IRAs) of LGUs into “expanded and bigger shares” from national taxes.  It would give LGUs a larger share of 50 percent from the current 40 percent of the total tax collections.

It is said to translate to a huge increase in shares “that would nearly double the funds automatically appropriated and released annually to LGUs.”

Mayor Mauricio Domogan bared these saying the bill shares the same intention as his previous proposal during his term as congressman where he proposed the amendment of the local government code so that the LGU’s shares from the national wealth tax will be directly remitted to them instead of the national government.

He said the present set-up of the shares having to pass through the national government is not effective as most LGUs do not receive their shares like Benguet province which has been deprived of its shares from the operations of mining companies for many years.

His proposed bill was passed by the House of Representatives but was not acted upon in the Senate.

The mayor said an amendment was done in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) law which enabled LGUs to collect directly their share from the operations of the economic zone locators but this does not cover national wealth taxes.

“I am happy that Senator Pimentel did not only adopt our old proposal, he also improved it by pushing for the 50-50 sharing (formula),” the mayor said.