GMA to release shares of tobacco excise taxes

LAOAG CITY — A whiff of good news spread throughout the Virginia tobacco-growing Ilocos region yesterday as President Arroyo pledged to release the shares of the region’s provinces of excise taxes which the national government collected from cigarette manufacturers.

Mrs. Arroyo made the pledge during a brief media conference at the Laoag International Airport early morning yesterday.

She said this will be the first time this will happen since 1991 when the law mandating the revenue-sharing took effect.

The total amount involved was not immediately known but Republic Act 7171, authored by former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson when he was serving as congressman, mandates the allocation of 15 percent of excise tax payments for the Virginia tobacco-producing provinces of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union and Abra.

Records at the National Tobacco Administration show that cigarette manufacturers pay an average of P16 billion annually to the national government.

The four provinces have received part of their respective shares, computed on a pro rata basis in accordance with the volume of tobacco production, in the past but there has been a marked delay in the release of succeeding funds.

For Ilocos Sur alone, Singson earlier announced that the government has failed to release over P1 billion.

It was not known where Mrs. Arroyo would source the funds but she said that half of the government’s obligation to the Virginia tobacco-growing provinces will be released "before the end of the year."

"It will be the first time that this will happen (to the Virginia tobacco-producing provinces)," she said.

The President, however, is expected to attach a condition for the release of the long-awaited funds. Sources said she will make sure that local officials will use the money for irrigation projects to enhance agricultural production, one of her administration’s thrusts.

Last June, Mrs. Arroyo released P107 million for Ilocos Sur during Singson’s birthday, and urged officials to utilize the money for irrigation.

The President stayed overnight at the posh Fort Ilocandia here after attending the wedding of a daughter of Laoag Mayor Roger Fariñas. She was forced to travel back to Manila by land, leaving her plane behind, due to inclement weather.