Big jump in gov’t spending seen

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima on Friday stressed that the government was not in an austerity mode, explaining that under-spending in the first half was only a consequence of efforts to ensure integrity in spending.

Earlier, the budget department said its move to thoroughly review spending proposals of government agencies took some time to complete, causing delays in disbursements in the first half.

Purisima, however, said that Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has been instructed by President Aquino to accelerate fund releases for spending in the second half.

Abad said his office was committed to boost spending in the remaining months of the year to reverse the lower-than-programmed disbursements from January to June. Now that the budget reviews were finished, Abad said the government could focus fully on boosting spending.

Abad added that the public could expect a “dramatic increase” in spending in the second half.

Purisima said the government was committed to boosting spending in the second half of the year to help achieve its economic growth targets. He reiterated that austerity was not a policy direction of the Aquino administration.

“There is no such program as austerity … I want to make it clear that what we are focused on is spending properly. There is a program against wastage and corruption,” Purisima said.

“We are focused on investing in infrastructure and social services to make our country more competitive,” the finance chief pointed out.

In the first six months, government documents showed that spending amounted to P699 billion, which was 140 billion less than the expenditure ceiling of P839 billion for the period.

This allowed the government to post a budget deficit of only P17 billion compared with the P152-billion shortfall programmed for the period.

The first-half fiscal performance elicited expectations that the full-year deficit would be well below the P300-billion ceiling for the year.