Senator “Koko” pushes for more share on national taxes

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Senator Aguilino “Kiko” Pimentel III yesterday urged Kapampangan to support his pending Senate Bill referred to as “Bigger Pie, Bigger Slice.”

Pimental  told the provincial government officials and employees during the flag raising ceremony at the capitol ground that he wanted to amend Section 284  of the Local Government Code of 1991.

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel joins Gov. Lilia Pineda and Vice-Gov. Joseller “Yeng” Guaio in the distribution of farm equipment to Kapampangan farmers. Photo by Jun Jaso, PIO Pampanga

This bill was filed on the occasion of the anniversary of Local Government Code on October 10, 2011.

He explained that under his bill the “Bigger Pie” refers to the tax base.

Currently the local government units’ (LGUs)  internal revenue allotment (IRA) is based on sums corresponding to “national internal revenue taxes” collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

With his proposal, LGU’s will no longer get 40% of the internal revenues collected by the national government  under the local government code.

 “Once the pie is bigger, the LGU will now be entitled to the ‘Bigger Slice,’” he noted.

“I am proposing that the sharing will be ‘hating kapatid’ or 50 – 50 of all national taxes between the national government and local government units,” Pimentel stated.

The senator also pointed out that if the local government units are given wider responsibilities, “they should also be given resources,” he added.

Pimentel shared that if his bill is approved, the province’s ‘share on national taxes” or SNT, this time,  no longer Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) would be P1,448,449,328 from the current P1,195,255,825.

“There would be an immediate increase of P253,193,503,” he ended.