SUBIC BAY FREEPORT -- A total of P222.13 million of revenue shares for the second semester 2018 dividends have been released to neighboring local government units (LGUs).
Ramon Agregado, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) senior deputy administrator for support services, said that on February 26 they have distributed the shares to representatives of the eight LGUs at the SBMA Board Room.
The biggest share went to Olongapo City at P51,663,390.29; followed by Subic, Zambales with P33,960,079.44; Dinalupihan, Bataan, P27,628,579.88; and San Marcelino, Zambales, P26,622,181.11.
The rest went to Hermosa, Bataan with P23, 129,326.47; Castillejos, Zambales, P20, 791,833.84; Morong, Bataan, P19, 303,258.14; and San Antonio, Zambales, P19, 035,516.74.
The revenue shares are taken from corporate taxes collected from registered Subic Bay Freeport enterprises, which are rated as five percent of their gross income.
Under Republic Act No. 9400, which amended Republic Act 7227 or the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, business enterprises within the Subic Freeport Zone only pay a five percent tax on their gross income earned within the zone.
Three percent of the five percent corporate tax directly goes to the national treasury, while the other two percent is distributed to neighboring LGUs as revenue share.
The amount that an LGU gets from the SBMA collection is determined according to population (50 percent), land area (25 percent), and equal sharing (25 percent).
SBMA chairman and administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the SBMA has now released a cumulative total of more than P1.87 billion to the neighboring LGUs in the last nine years that the SBMA had directly released shares to them.
However, Eisma said the Subic agency does not have any record of what projects the LGU shares were used for since the law did not require LGUs to report back to the SBMA on the disbursement of the shares.
“We just hope that the LGUs would be using the shares properly and accountably because these releases are precisely intended for them to be able to keep pace with the developments in the Subic Bay Freeport,” Eisma said.
According to SBMA records, Olongapo City has received a total of P448.45 million in LGU shares since 2010, the biggest among the recipients.
Olongapo is followed by Subic with P280.38 million; Dinalupihan, P234 million; San Marcelino, P225.51 million; Hermosa, P192.41 million; Castillejos, P165.82 million; San Antonio, P163 milion; and Morong, P162.35 million.