Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday the national government will appeal a recent Supreme Court decision on the Internal Revenue Allotment of local government units.
In a July 4 ruling, the high court said the 40-percent IRA allotment of local government units should be sourced from all national taxes and not only from the Bureau of Internal Revenue taxes.
“As of now, we have not received the decision. We asked the Solicitor General to appeal to reverse the decision,” Diokno said in an open forum at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
He made his statement even as a pro-administration lawmaker on Thursday urged the Budget department to abide by the high court decision.
Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on local governments, also asked the department to work out a plan on how to give out the full IRA due the LGUs since 1992 based on the landmark high court ruling.
“We commend the Supreme Court for this landmark ruling as this would be of immense help in boosting the economy of LGUs once we commence the shift to a federal system of government,” Villafuerte said.
Voting 10-3, the high court interpreted the basis for the ‘just share’ of the LGUs “as being based on all national taxes and not only on the National Internal Revenue Taxes as provided in Section 284 of the Local Government Code.”
Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas, the lead petitioner in the case, has called for an urgent implementation of the high court ruling.
Under the 2018 General Appropriations, the LGUs will receive a P522.7-billion IRA share while for 2019 they will get P575.5 billion or 15.3 percent of the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget approved in the recent Cabinet meeting. With Maricel V. Cruz