BAGUIO CITY -- The city government of Baguio has received its share of PHP225 million from the 2017 operation of exporting companies, particularly, in Loakan.
The exporting firms are operating under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), which entitles local government hosts to a 2-percent share from the 5-percent special tax the agency gets from the company locators. The national government gets the remaining 3 percent.
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) last week, Baguio City Accountant Antonio Tabin said Baguio's 2017 PEZA receipts were an improvement from its PEZA receipts of PHP160 million in 2016, or an increase of 40.6 percent.
“The city’s PEZA share was decreasing for several years prior to last year’s share that’s why it served as an added source of funds that was used to fund projects of the local government and improve the delivery of services to our people,” he said.
The city accountant said US President Donald Trump's pronouncement of his American-first policy had caused fears that American companies based in PEZA might leave the country and gravely affect the city's externally generated funds for budget operations.
Luckily, he noted, the American companies like the Texas Instruments Philippines and MOOG Controls Corporation, two of the biggest multinational companies operating in the Loakan economic zone, had stayed in the country.
Tabin said the exporter-locators' presumably bigger production and better earnings had even resulted in bigger remittance to the city government last year.
The city official said with the global economic growth, the multinational firms operating in Baguio's export zone might also earn more, translating to more financial benefits to the city government.
Tabin said the PEZA receipts form part of the city government's externally generated funds that make the city's budget operational.
Other external sources of funds for the city government, he said, are the Internal Revenue Allotment from the national government and the local government's share from lotto outlets' operations of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. (PNA)
