NEGROS Occidental has earned P4.138 billion in local income for 2016.
Based on the Capitol’s Business Income Report for 2016 released Thursday, the Provincial Government’s gross is higher compare to the previous year’s P3.646 billion.
Comprising the amount are the Capitol’s internal sources pegged at P1.037 billion and external sources at P3.101 billion.
Under the internal sources are collections from real property taxes with P124 million; business and other local taxes, P34 million; fees and charges, P774 million; and Economic Enterprise, P103 million.
The external sources include the Internal Revenue Allotment, P2.575 billion; shares from national collection, P16.165 million; inter-local transfers, P509 million; and extraordinary receipts, P10,000.
The Provincial Government has also earned P69 million from the lease and rental of its facilities and P30 million from the 11 Capitol-run hospitals.
Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said he is targeting to make Negros Occidental a “self-sustaining province.”
He said the local government units should not only rely on local taxes, but should have income-generating projects.
In the 2016 Annual Financial Report for Local Government Units of the Commission on Audit (COA), Negros Occidental is the third richest province in the country, following the increase of its assets, which is now at P11.041 billion from P9.40 billion in 2015.
Marañon said he is looking to institutionalize the development programs under his Negros First 11-point agenda, which was implemented seven years ago.
This will be done so that the development programs and social services that he started will be continued by his successor.
The governor’s third and final term will end in 2019.
Marañon said 2018 will be promising and an exciting year, adding that he expects it will exceed last year’s progress and development.
One of the programs he wants to institutionalize is the Negros Occidental Comprehensive Health Insurance Program, which has benefited more than 200,000 families, or more than one million individuals in the province.