PH plans to borrow P2.46T in 2024

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman. Photo by Ryan Leagogo/ INQUIRER.net

MANILA  -The national government plans to borrow a total of P2.46 trillion in 2024 to help fund a P5.77-trillion spending program that the executive department intends to propose to Congress, according to Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman.

Pangandaman said in a statement that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved next year’s National Expenditure Program (NEP), which she said seeks to sustain economic growth while bearing in mind inclusivity and sustainability.

The NEP is the national government’s spending plan for the next fiscal year. Once approved by Congress, it will be known as the General Appropriations Bill, and once passed into law, the bill will be known as the General Appropriations Act.

Pangandaman said the proposed 2024 National Budget will be submitted to Congress a few weeks after the second State of the Nation Address (Sona) of the President, which is scheduled on July 24.

The Philippine Constitution requires that the NEP be submitted to Congress within 30 days after the Sona.

“Guided by our Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, the proposed national budget will continue to prioritize expenditures outlined in the administration’s 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and cater to the objectives of Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028,” the budget chief said.

The proposed budget “shall continue to reflect our commitment to pursue economic and social transformation to address the scarring effects of the pandemic, as well as the impact of inflation, by prioritizing shovel-ready investments in infrastructure projects, investments in human capital development, and sustainable agriculture and food security, among others,” she added.

At P5.768 trillion, the proposed 2024 national budget is equivalent to 21.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) or economic output and is 9.5 percent higher than the P5.268-trillion budget for 2023.

READ: Marcos approves P5.7 trillion National Expenditure Program for 2024

To support this year’s expenses, the national government has set a P2.2-trillion borrowing program, which represents about 42 percent of the budget.

Also, the planned volume of funds that the national government will borrow to support the 2024 budget is 12 percent higher than this year’s borrowing program.

The proposed 2024 budget “is crafted as an indispensable step towards the overarching goal to attain upper-middle-income status while bringing down the deficit to 3 percent of GDP and reducing the poverty rate to 9 percent by 2028,” Pangandaman said.

She added that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) received from various national agencies a proposal for a total of P5.9 trillion in expenses for next year. That means the DBM did not allow about P132 billion in proposed spending.

“Due to the limited fiscal space, we optimized the allocation of resources by ensuring that the PAPs (programs, activities and projects) that will be budgeted are implementation-ready, and must be delivered and executed on time,” Pangandaman said.

—Ronnel W. Domingo INQ

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