House committee approval for 2018 budget seen by late August

THE HOUSE committee on appropriations expects to approve the P3.767 trillion 2018 national budget by late August, its chairman said.

Davao City Rep. (1st district) Karlo Alexei B. Nograles said committee-level approval of the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is expected by Aug. 22, after it starts fresh deliberations on Aug. 1.

“It will be a hectic August for the Committee as we aim to finish and file our Committee Report (CR) on the proposed 2018 General Appropriations Act by Aug. 30,” Mr. Nograles was quoted in a statement yesterday.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday submitted the GAA at the conclusion of his second State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The Budget department said earlier that it hopes that the GAA will pass both chambers of Congress as early as October, given the budget’s early submission to Congress.

Mr. Nograles for his part said that he estimates the bill to be sent to the Senate by September.

“We will have to allot time for printing the voluminous budgetary documents before we transmit it to the Senate by Sept. 21,” Mr. Nograles said.

Mr. Nograles said that despite hopes for the speedy approval of the bill, which is still unnumbered, “there will be no shortcuts in their effort to scrutinize every single allocation and every single centavo that is contained in the proposed GAA.”

“We will be fast just like last year without sacrificing prudence in the use of public funds. We will look into the budget down to the smallest detail in order to make sure that all allocations are realistic and every centavo would be well spent in improving the life of our people,” he added.

The proposed budget of P3.767 trillion for 2018 represents a rise of 12.4% on the current year’s GAA.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said in a news conference yesterday that the 2018 budget will be prioritizing infrastructure development and social spending. “It is an expansionary budget, in line with our fiscal policy, that will support the government’s medium-term objectives,” he said.

“Besides social services, it is no secret that the Duterte administration is prioritizing infrastructure development … we will usher in the Golden Age of Infrastructure in the Philippines.

“The infrastructure program will grant Filipinos a more comfortable life for all as what President Duterte has emphasized in his SONA. We want Filipinos to spend less time on the road, and more time with their families. We want to generate decent jobs for our workers — Build Build Build alone will generate more than one million jobs annually in the medium-term,” he added.

The proposed 2018 national budget is equivalent to 21.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), with 29.4% of the proposed budget for next year allocated to “personnel services,” the Palace said, while “infrastructure and capital outlays” will receive 25.4%.

The 2018 budget assumes P2.841 trillion in government revenue, equivalent to 16.3% of GDP and 17% more than the P2.427 trillion assumed in 2017, which was equivalent to 15.2% of GDP.

Disbursements meanwhile will increase by some 15.6% to P3.364 trillion, equivalent to 19.3% of GDP, against 2017’s P2.909 trillion, equivalent to 18.3% of GDP.

Of the disbursements, infrastructure spending is programmed to rise by 54.47% to P752.9 billion, equivalent to 4.3% of GDP, from this year’s planned P487.4 billion, or 3.1% of GDP.