Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman (File photo) MANILA - The Department of Budget Management (DBM) has allocated around PHP962.2 billion for the local government units (LGUs) nationwide in 2023 to boost their capabilities and enable them to fast-track the delivery of their basic services. The 2023 budget plan for LGUs represents around 18.3 percent of the proposed PHP5.268-trillion national budget for next year, the DBM said in a press statement on Wednesday. The DBM said around PHP820.27 of the PHP962.2 billion would be used for the National Tax Allotment (NTA) shares of LGUs, in accordance with the Mandanas-Garcia Supreme Court (SC) ruling. Under the SC ruling, LGUs get a bigger share in the collections of national taxes, as their internal revenue allotment (IRA) should come from 40 percent of all national taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BoC). The IRA share of LGUs, based on the old system, came only from the taxes collected by the