The P5.1 billion budget of Negros Occidental and P3.25 billion budget of Bacolod City for 2023 are expected to be approved in early December.
The Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan is expected to approve the provincial government’s budget on second and third reading on December 6, Board Member Rommel Debulgado, SP Committee on Finance chairman, said on Friday, November 25.
The deliberations on the budget proposed by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, which they have found justifiable, have been completed, he said.
Debulgado said of the P5.1 billion, the proposed General Fund Budget for 2023 is P4,952,981,428, while the annual operating budget of the Economic Enterprise Development Department is P190,379,525.15.
The 2023 budget is P766 million or 12.87 percent less compared to the 2022 budget because of the reduction in the province’s share in the National Tax Allotment (NTA), he added.
Councilor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said his Committee on Finance aims to complete the public hearings on the proposed P3.25 billion 2023 budget of Bacolod in the first week of December, and for the Sangguniang Panlungsod to approve it the week after.
The proposed Bacolod budget for 2023 is the same as that of 2022 despite a cut in the city’s NTA share by P300 million, Sayson said.
The city government will look for other sources to compensate for the P300 million budget reduction, Sayson said.
“We will improve the collections of the different collecting agencies of the city government,” he said.*