BUTUAN CITY -- The Province of Agusan del Norte has been awarded by the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) in a ceremony held at Clark, Pampanga today, December 14, for having ranked Top 2 in year-on-year growth of locally sourced revenues and Top 8 in terms of collection efficiency among all the provinces in the Philippines based on 2019-2020 records.
The said recognition was given after the province posted continuous increase of its locally generated income from the year 2019 to 2020. It has recorded a collection of Php146.83 million in 2019 and Php224.48 million in the year 2020, a 52.9 percent increase in a two-year period.
Further, the province also recorded an increase in collection efficiency by 124.0% as it posted a Php24.48 million excess in its Php181-million target in Locally Sourced Revenue (LSR).
The LSR is the total collected real property tax, local business tax, professional and community taxes, regulatory fees, other service charges, and receipts from government economic enterprises.
It may be noted that under AGUSAN UP!, the development campaign of the administration of Gov. Dale B. Corvera, the province has aimed to rise from a third to first class province by 2027. With the support of the Congressional District Office of Rep. Angel Amante-Matba, the province designed measures to raise its LSR from nearly Php200 million to Php500 million, the minimum income requirement for one to be classified as a first class province, in the next seven years.
Gov. Corvera and Provincial Treasurer Wilelmo C. Furia received the award.
In his acceptance message, Gov. Corvera is grateful and thankful to the BLGF and Department of Finance for the recognition.
The governor also recognized the efforts of the personnel of the Provincial Treasurer’s Office for the job well done and the people of Agusan del Norte for paying religiously their taxes.
“On behalf of the people of the province Agusan del Norte. I would like to thank the BLGF and DOF for this recognition and certainly this recognition will continue to inspire and motivate us to do more and much better for our people and province” Gov. Corvera said as he received the award. (Karen Kei Decamotan, LGU Agusan del Norte/PIA Agusan del Norte)