Neda seeks P13.21-billion budget for 2025

| PHOTO: Official website of NEDA / sdg.neda.gov.ph

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) is proposing a P13.21-billion budget for 2025, a 0.2 percent increase from this year’s P13.19-billion budget.

This translated to 0.2 percent of the national government’s proposed P6.35-trillion budget.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will receive the largest share of the budget, totaling P8.67 billion, which represents approximately 65.58 percent of the overall amount. This was lower by 5.49 percent from this year’s P9.17 billion-budget.

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“The decrease is due to the completion of census operations for the Census of Population and Community-Based Monitoring System this year,” Neda Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said during the budget hearing.

In second place is the Office of the Secretary (OSec), with a proposed budget of P2.82 billion, up by 36.6 percent from the P2.07 billion budget this year. The proposed budget for next year translated to 20.37 percent of the total.

“Bulk of the increase in Neda Osec’s budget is for the construction and improvement of buildings for Neda central and regional offices, as well as ICT requirements,” Balisacan said.

The remaining P1.72 billion or 30.05 percent is shared by Neda’s attached agencies which includes Commission on Population and Development with P537.67 million, Development Academy of the Philippines (P347.27 million), Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS, P291.54 million), Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines (P276 million), Tariff Commission (P130.33 million), Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute (P108.20 million), and Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (P33.67 million).

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For next year, the PSA has prioritized several major initiatives, including the Philippine Identification System (Philsys). The goal is to achieve a cumulative registration of 98 million, encompassing newborns linked to their birth records. This plan also includes delivering 76 million ePhilIDs, issuing 51 million printed ePhilIDs, and upgrading Philsys infrastructure. The total projected cost for these activities is P1.84 billion.

Another significant project for the PSA is the development or enhancement of a statistical framework that incorporates geospatial information. This involves integrating statistical data with geospatial information gathered through geotiming, which logs building structures to create digital building footprints. The total cost for this initiative is P1.12 billion.

Meanwhile, the social economic policy research program of PIDS has a total allotment of P199 million which is intended to be used for conducting in-house research studies, including the assessment of Department of Education’s Matatag K-10 Curriculum Pilot Implementation.