THE Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) has unanimously approved the P4,471,695,065 provincial budget for 2021 during its regular session Tuesday, November 24, 2020.
The approval of the proposed 2021 budget was done by the SP without any question from its members on second and third reading, respectively.
Board Member Rommel Debulgado, chairperson of the SP Committee on Finance, presided over the deliberations of the budget for three consecutive weeks.
Debulgado said of the general fund budget, P1,641,424,244 has been allocated for personal services, P1,374,658, 871 for maintenance and other operating expenses, P12 million for capital outlay and P1,143,611,950 for special purpose appropriations.
The SP also approved the P128,073,521 budget next year of the provincial government's Economic Enterprise Development Department, which was also authored by Debulgado.
Debulgado said the personnel services budget accounts for 36.71 percent of the P4.4 billion budget allocated next year.
This includes payment to the first tranche of salary increases of Capitol employees, productivity enhancement incentives, overtime and granting of step increments.