DOTC budget proposal lower than last year’s

Private sector infrastructure spending is expected to accelerate in 2013 as construction of various projects awarded by the government this year hits full swing.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) this week submitted its proposal for a P32.7-billion budget for 2013—five percent lower than this year’s allocation.

In crafting next year’s budget, Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas said the department focused on projects that could be completed in a year’s time, in line with the Budget and Management department’s austerity measures.

“We put in an estimate of what we can deploy in one year. That’s the policy set forth by the President to ensure that no money is wasted,” Roxas said.

The lower budget, he said, also indicated an expectation that projects under the administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) would finally be implemented next year.

“You can’t make the connection that a lower budget means lower infrastructure spending for the country. It’s PPPs that will account for the increase in spending, but none of that is included in our budget because the private sector will spend for that,” Roxas said.

He added that most PPP “support” costs, involving money spent for feasibility studies and bidding expenses, were already included in the DOTC’s 2012 budget.

Several of the biggest projects in the Aquino administration’s pipeline are handled by the DOTC. This includes the P60-billion plan to extend the Light Rail Transit (LRT) line 1 from Baclaran to Cavite.

For 2013, the DOTC said, about P31.1 billion will go to projects and programs, where the agency has proposed an allotment of P22.6 billion and P8.5 billion, respectively.

The DOTC’s lower budget also reflects the removal of a significant portion of the P7 billion in subsidies taxpayers need to shell out each year for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) line on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa).

Roxas said a hike in MRT fares, that would bring it closer to bus fares, would likely be implemented next year. An MRT ticket costs P15 from end to end. Without subsidies, MRT passengers would each have to pay close to P60 to travel the same distance.

The secretary said the planned fare hike would have no effect on plans to privatize the train line. “These are two separate issues that would be decided separately,” Roxas said, referring to the privatization and the fare hike.

Also, the DOTC reported an increase in income in the first semester of 2012 to P1.2 billion—higher than the P1 billion of a year ago.  Paolo G. Montecillo