TAX and non-tax revenues of local government units (LGUs) as of the end of the third quarter this year only inched up by 0.5 percent year-on-year to P208.98 billion amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Latest data from the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) showed almost flat revenues collected by LGUs from local sources as of end-September this year, compared to last year’s P207.92 billion.
Broken down, LGU’s tax revenue from January to September this year was even slightly lower at P163.09 billion than P163.198 billion in the same period in 2020.
Tax on businesses, which is expected to be the biggest source of LGU’s local revenues this year, posted a double-digit drop of 12.27 percent to P88.32 billion during the nine-month period from last year’s P100.67 billion.
However, real property tax surged by 16.9 percent to P65.35 billion from P55.9 billion in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, other taxes collected by LGUs grew by 42.21 percent year-on-year to P9.42 billion from P6.62 billion.
On the other hand, end-September non-tax revenues reached P45.89 billion, up by 2.62 percent from P44.72 billion.
For this year, the BLGF has set a P223.9-billion local revenue collection target, which is 30 percent lower than the original goal of P321.6 billion.
The cut in the revenue collection goal for LGUs was due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the slowdown in business operations in 2020, the base year for assessments of most local taxes for 2021.
Last year, locally sourced revenues collected fell to P251.65 billion from P253.8 billion in 2019. This, however, exceeded the slashed local revenue target of P193.04 billion for 2020.
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