GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Forty-one years after becoming a chartered city, this locality, dubbed the "Tuna Capital of the Philippines," has finally joined the billionaire's club of local government units in the country.

Locally-generated revenues helped fuel the city to breach the milestone in 2008, data recently released by City Hall showed.

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Year-on-year, the city's income grew by 12.7 percent, from P892.5 million to 1.005 billion, the report stressed.

"This is a testament to the city's business-friendly environment," said Mayor Pedro B. Acharon Jr.

The bulk of the city's income came from the Internal Revenue Allotment, which increased by 15.8 percent to P663 million in 2008 from P572 million the previous year.

Citing the city's vision statement, Acharon, who is in his last term, said that by 2015, GenSan "will be a globally competitive and livable city whose healthy, friendly, well-educated and responsible citizens actively participate in effective governance."

The city has landed in the global map as a major producer of tuna, the economic backbone of this port city. Six of the country’s seven tuna canneries are based in this locality, the economic hub of Central Mindanao region.

Fresh mature tuna stocks are also landed daily at the sprawling fish port complex here and traded mostly to Japan and the United States.

Tuna fish processors have sprouted in dozens to produce products like spring roll, siomai, chorizo, patties and many other value-added variants.

An estimated 120,000 people in the city and neighboring areas are directly and indirectly dependent on the local tuna industry, industry players said.

The city's population ballooned to 529,542 in the 2007 census from 411,822 in 2000, National Statistics Office data showed.

In recent years, the city experienced a boom with expanding mall operations, the latest player of which was the Gokongwei-owned Robinsons Mall, which opened only last month. The Sy-led SM chain of malls is reportedly following suit.

From locally-generated revenues, property tax collection contributed to the city’s coffer last year some P213 million, up P13 million or 6.4 percent from the P200 million posted in 2007.

Business tax collections reached P54 million in 2008, from P53 million the previous year or a hike of 1.5 percent.

Service income was posted at about P39 million last year from P33 million previously, up by 16.9 percent.

Income from license permits rose by 6.2 percent to 15 million from P14 million in 2007.

At least P22 million have been raked as other income in 2008, from P19 million the previous year.

Marcelino E. Dospueblos, city administrator, said the city’s expenditure last year reached P793.6 million, P402 million of which went to personnel services and the rest to maintenance and operating expenses.

The city's net income last year was P212 million, he added.