By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
Laoag
City—Concerned local government units here
can now heave a sigh of relief as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)
confirmed the release of the much awaited tobacco excise tax share due for
tobacco-producing municipalities and cities here.
Dingras mayor Erdio
Valenzuela reported this following the League of Municipalities of the
Philippines meeting in Manila.
During the meeting, Budget Secretary
Florencio “Burch” Abad assured tobacco-producing provinces in Luzon to expect
the release of the tobacco excise tax share before the end of December.
With the release of the
province’s share of the tobacco excise tax, the provincial government of Ilocos
Norte hopes that more agriculture infrastructure activities, hybrid rice seeds,
fertilizers and other farm inputs will be given to farmers to sustain Ilocos Norte’s
target as one of the top rice producers in the country.
Since the enactment
of Republic Act 7171, or “An Act to Promote the Development of the
Farmers in the Virginia Tobacco-Producing Provinces,” in 1992, Ilocos
farmers are grateful for the appropriation of the tobacco excise tax where the
provincial government used most of its tobacco fund to construct farm-to-market
roads and rehabilitate agricultural facilities in time for the looming El Niño
phenomenon or prolonged drought.
Under the law, it mandates
that the provinces of Ilocos Sur, La Union, Ilocos Norte, and Abra get 15
percent of the taxes on Virginia Type A cigarettes collected by the national
government.
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