DBM: 77.4% of 2020 budget released at end-February

Update

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already released over three-fourth or P3.17 trillion of the P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget at end-February.

The latest DBM data showed that 77.4 percent of this year’s budget were received by government agencies, including other automatic appropriations, during the first two months, a jump from only 51.8 percent in January.

For funds under the 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or Republic Act (RA) No. 11465, allotment releases from January to February amounted P1.92 trillion or 67.3 percent of the P2.85-trillion program.

Comprehensive releases to government departments as of February reached P1.83 trillion or 76.7 percent of the programmed P2.38 trillion.

As for special purpose funds, P88.7 billion or 19 percent of the P466.9 billion allotted for 2020 were already released.

Automatic appropriations—programmed over a period prescribed by law through outstanding legislation requiring periodic action by Congress—worth P1.24 billion or 98.9 percent of the P1.25-trillion program for this year were released during the two-month period.

These automatic appropriations included retirement and life insurance premiums, internal revenue allotment (IRA) for local government units (LGUs), a block grant for the newly formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), pensions of former presidents and their widows, a special account in the general fund, net lending, interest payments, as well as releases under the tax expenditures fund (TEF) for customs duties and taxes to be paid for government importation.

As such, P3.15 trillion or 76.9 percent of the original P4.1-trillion spending program for 2020 were released at end-February.

Also released during the first two months were P19.1 billion in other releases, including P8.5 billion from 2019’s continuing appropriations, of which P5.2 billion were for departments on top of P3.2 billion in special purpose funds.

Released for unprogrammed appropriations were P10.4 billion plus P295.5 million in other automatic appropriations for grants and donations.

President Duterte had extended the validity of the P3.7-trillion 2019 budget until this year as approval of last year’s appropriations were delayed by four-and-a-half months.

Still pending release was a balance of P927.5 billion in the government budget for this year.