Gov’t pitches for early approval of budget in October

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno. FILE PHOTO

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is eyeing the approval of the proposed P3.767-trillion 2018 national budget in October to give agencies more time to plan their respective programs and avoid underspending.

On the sidelines of a tax reform forum Wednesday, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno told reporters it helped that the first package of the Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax reform program was already approved by the House of Representatives before it adjourned its first regular session in May. He said lawmakers there could already work and focus on the record-high budget when Congress resumes on July 24.

Diokno said President Duterte would present the details of the 2018 budget to legislators in his state of the nation address (SONA). The DBM was set to publish the document in the coming days in time for the President’s SONA.

The Budget chief said they were optimistic to have the national budget passed by October, or two months earlier than usual. In recent years, the budget was usually approved by Congress in December.

“You can already proceed with bidding [but] short of [award], so that by Jan. 1, 2018, you’ll just sign the contract,” Diokno said, referring to agencies that would be given enough lead time to draft their spending plans.

Diokno also reiterated Mr. Duterte’s earlier pronouncements that heads would roll if agencies were unable to disburse their respective budgets.

Government spending as a whole is expected to further pick up in the second half and reverse the impact of base effects during the first half. Election-related spending boosted public expenditures last year, Diokno noted.

“If you noticed, in every change in administration there was really a lag in spending. But I’m not worried about that because it is already picking up,” the Budget chief added.

The latest government data showed that expenditures on public goods and services jumped 20 percent year-on-year in May, although the year-to-date increase was a slower 6 percent as of end-May. —BEN O. DE VERA