TACLOBAN CITY, Feb.6 (PNA) –The Sangguniang Panlungod (SP) of this city on Wednesday’s regular session passed a resolution asking President Benigno S. Aquino III for the national government to extend fund augmentation for the city’s operation.
The resolution authored by councilor Cristina Romualdez, who is also the chair of the committee on finance, stressed that the current budget of the city government is not enough to support the current needs of the city.
The lady councilor added that the city did not reach its projected income for 2013 after most businessmen left the city while some did not pay their taxes neither have renewed their business licenses.
As of February 4, of the more than 11,000 businesses operating in the city of Tacloban, only 446 applied for the renewal of their business licenses, thus severely affecting the income of the local government unit, said Romualdez.
The LGU is asking for some P363 millions augmentation fund, said Romualdez.
Last week the city council approved the 2014 amended budget of the city government amounting to some P550 million.
Meanwhile, the resolution for fund augmentation will also be sent to the House of Representatives and the Senate for appropriate action, said Vice-Mayor Jerry Yaokasin.
The Congress should know this request of the city government so they could include the budget that the city is asking in their supplementary budget, he added.
Yaokasin also pushed for an itemized list of projects so that the national government would know where the augmentation fund will go. (PNA)