BORONGAN CITY, January 8, 2017–The provincial government’s budget for 2018 has been approved.
The P1,283,751.803 budget was approved without changes during the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s session last Friday. Bulk of it is from the internal revenue allotment amounting to P1.183B, and the rest is revenue from local sources amounting to P100M.
This year’s budget is 11% higher than last year’s due to the increase in the IRA and local income.
Personal services has the biggest allocation with P512.6M, while the economic development fund is P236.7M.
According to Acting Vice Governor Jonas Abuda, the budget is aligned with the provincial government’s thrust to reduce poverty incidence in the province.
Unlike the previous years when most of the economic development fund was spent on infrastructure projects, this year, a big chunk of the EDF will be allocated for livelihood programs, support to peoples organizations and tourism development.
“This budget is more focused directly on the target population especially the organized sector,” Abuda stressed.
Health services also gets a sizable share of the budget to support the operations of government-run hospitals, especially for the purchase of medicines and equipment.
In an earlier interview, Acting Governor Marcelo Ferdinand Picardal expressed his desire to have the budget approved on time so that government programs and services won’t be disrupted.
VG Abuda added that “ideally, the budget should have been approved before the current year ended, but it was delayed because of some amendments in the Annual Investment Plan, which is the basis of the budget”. (Eden Cidro/Este News)
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