SC widens base of LGUs’ share in country's taxes

The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled to widen the base of local government units' shares in the country's taxes.

According to the SC's Public Information Office, the High Court voted 10-3 to "interpret the basis for the 'just share' of LGUs under Section 6, Article X of the 1987 Constitution as being based on all national taxes and not only national internal revenue taxes, as provided in Section 284 of the Local Government Code."

Section 284 of the 1991 law provides that LGUs shall have a share of 40 percent in the government's national internal revenue tax collection.

The government also derives income from tax collections by the Bureau of Customs that were allegedly excluded from what they previously received.

This SC decision, reached Tuesday, resolved a petition filed by Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas, then a congressman, and other local officials against former executive secretary Paquito Ochoa, then Budget secretary Florencio Abad, and others in 2012.

Mandanas' petition asked the SC to release LGUs' IRA as determined by law, claiming that the unreleased amount of "just share" between 1992 and 2012 has reached P500 billion.

Associate Justices Marvic Leonen, Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, and Andres Reyes dissented from the majority decision, while Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza took no part, the SC PIO said. —NB, GMA News