City’s economic enterprises to help boost LGU’s budget

By Paulo DS. Papa

MAYOR Nelson Legacion on Tuesday, January 3, said that he sees that the P1.5 billion annual budget for 2023 may be boosted by the funds from local economic enterprises of the city government which triumphantly earned more from their operations or were able to surpass their individual revenue targets last year.

Legacion, in a press briefing, said that the Market Enterprise and Promotions Office (MEPO) was able to earn P62 million, which is higher than its P52-M target last year. At least P10-M was generated as additional funds for this year’s budget.

The city mayor said that he is still waiting for the financial reports that will be submitted by of the Bicol Central Station, and the Naga City Abattoir to confirm possible excess funds from their collections in the previous year.

He said that he is hoping that more funds will be generated from the surplus of these local economic enterprises, which, he said, will finally be determined by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

The mayor said that the annual budget for 2022 was P1.6-B which is P1-M higher than this year’s budget of P1.5-B.

He said that the decrease in the 2023 annual budget will directly affect the operations of the local government. He, however, assured the Nagueños that his administration will implement approaches to lessen the impact brought by the decrease in the budget by implementing cost reduction measures.

Despite the depletion in this year’s budget, the local chief executive assured that his administration will not terminate any employee just because of its weak fiscal positioning. He, however, said that an LGU worker may be dismissed from his work because of his violation committed against work policies and regulations, has committed immoral acts, or has been involved in illegal drugs.