By Dominic B. dela Cruz ( Staff Reporter) City of Batac —As the Christmas season goes into high gear the New Year beckons, four local government units in the province said they will have a reduction of their annual budgets in 2023 compared to this year. Batac Vice Mayor and Sangguniang Panlungsod presiding officer Atty. Windell D. Chua said this city will have a decrease of PHP70 million for next year compared to the current budget. From the PHP903,677,575.48 2020 annual budget, the Batac council only approved PHP833,473,836.08 for the 2023 annual budget. Among the major reasons for the decrease, Chua said, was the National Tax Allocation (NTA) share reduction wherein the city government here had PHP 107 million less, or 14.46%, from their last year’s share. Chua promised though that services offered by the city government, particularly in the agricultural sector, health, social welfare and infrastructure projects will not be affected, adding only the budget for capital o
Online edition of The Ilocos Times, a community newspaper based in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.