Gov. Ed Gadiano is seriously considering allowing quarrying activities in the Province of Occidental Mindoro as he targets to increase local revenue collection through quarry taxes.
He defended the idea by presenting scenarios involving seven (7) major rivers in different municipalities which he considered to be already destructive in nature due to siltation.
According to him, speaking at Sangguniang Panlalawigan during the signing of 2020 Local Expenditure Plan, based on the current financial status, the Province is heavily dependent on Internal Revenue Allotment coming from the national government.
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While real property taxes contribute a lot in generating income for the province, it is not that enough considering the extent of projects and programs to be funded by the Provincial Government and the services to be delivered to the constituents.
Aside from revenue collection purposes, Gov. Gadiano stressed that the primary objective is to provide protection among farmers and their agricultural lands which have been exposed to flood due to high residual deposits on river beds.
River quarrying or dredging will provide appropriate channels that will drive the unwanted water away from agricultural lands.
Furthermore, with quarrying activities, the barangay, municipal, and provincial government will all benefit having their own percentage share from quarry taxes.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gadiano said that he is only following the lead of the previous administration which also considered quarrying operations in the Province.
Ultimately, the greater the amount of collected quarry taxes, the more the Provincial Government will have the financial capability to pay its outstanding loans from different institutions.
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Here’s Gov. Gadiano’s speech on quarry taxes after the signing of 2020 Local Expenditure Plan at Sangguniang Panlalawigan.