Sunday, December 23, 2007 Benguet to get P22-M more IRA if boundaries are set By Jane Cadalig
THE resolution of Benguet's boundary conflicts with neighboring provinces would mean additional income for the province.
Engineer Tuho Chapdian of the Provincial Planning & Development Office said the provincial government would receive around P22-million in additional shares from the Internal Revenue Allotment if all the existing boundary conflicts it has with other provinces will be settled.
He said a total of 15,000 hectares would be added to the province's existing land area if its boundary disputes will be resolved. Benguet has boundary conflicts with all adjacent provinces like La Union, Ifugao, Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province.
Land area is one of the bases of the Department of Budget Management for the IRA allocation of a local government unit. Currently, the province gets an IRA of P322,059,495 from a claimed area of 276,908 hectares.
The area, which is being adopted by the province in coming up with its socio-economic profile, was adopted from the 2001 official master list of the Land Management Bureau of the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR).
The province has four varying survey maps indicating different land areas, but the DBM itself recommended the use of the 276,908-hectare map, as this has been the data used in the computation of the province's IRA.
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