DAVAO City's total annual budget for fiscal year 2020 will reach P10.3 billion, a councilor revealed.
Davao City Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, committee chair on finance, ways and means, and appropriations, said the 2020 budget increased from P8.8 billion in 2019.
Dayanghirang said the budget, endorsed by Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, is expected to be approved by the City Council on third and final reading in the third week of November.
"The focus of the budget will be generally more on social services such as health, for the children and women," the councilor said.
He, however, clarified that he has not yet seen the details of the items in the proposed budget as he was only able to receive it last October 16.
He also said that 50 percent of the budget will go to the maintenance operating expenditures while 20 percent will be for the internal revenue allotment and the remaining 30 percent will be for the annual development fund.
He added that the ample budget will also be allocated to the city programs such as disaster risk and reduction management, law and order, education, among others.
"Dako atong budget karon (We have a higher budget this time) because we just passed the Annual Revenue Code, which caused the increased of some taxes," Dayanghirang said.
He also credited the late City Treasurer's Office (CTO) head Erwin Alparaque for his efforts in the revenue tax collection of the city as it collected a record-breaking amount of P8.5 billion.
In June this year, revenue tax collection increased to P5.5 billion, an 11 percent increase compared to P4.9 billion of the same period in the previous year.
He also said the increasing number of registered business establishments, which reached to almost 40,000 based on the 2019 record from the Davao City Business Bureau, has contributed to the increase in revenue tax collection.
Dayanghirang said his committee is currently conducting series of hearings with 19 local department offices.
He said the committee hearing is expected to finish on the second week of November although the city is given until December 31 to approve the annual budget.
Meanwhile, he also said the Council will be approving another Supplemental Budget in December.
"This will be in time for the Christmas season wherein we will also be allocating some bonuses," Dayanghirang said.
He, however, said the budget for it is still not final as they are still waiting for the memorandum circular from the Department of Budget and Management.
He revealed that the supplemental budget during the previous years had reached between P100 to 200 million.
The councilor added that the source of the budget will come from the unused budget from the previous years.