Three Cebu municipalities failed to meet DoF reports

CEBU, Philippines - The municipalities of Carmen, Cordova and Sibonga in Cebu are among the 72 municipalities identified by the Department of Finance that did not submit their statement of receipts and expenditures in 2014.

 In a bulletin it posted on its website Wednesday, the DoF said that 992 out of 1,490 municipalities have annual regular incomes that are below the national average of 15 percent ratio of locally sourced income (LSR) to annual regular income (ARI).

 This despite the fact that 239 of them are actually high income class municipalities.

 There were also 72 municipalities that did not submit reports, among them are the three Cebu towns mentioned.

 All local treasurers were required by the DoF to submit their fiscal year 2014 reports on or before May 31 last year.

 No municipality in Cebu also made it to the top 10 municipalities with the highest LSI-to-ARI ratios.

 DoF said municipalities have the direct authority to impose tax, collect levy and fix user fees. Like cities, they also have broad taxing power provided by law.

 "But most municipalities still fared low in generating locally sourced revenues in 2014," DoF noted.  (FREEMAN)