Gov’t economic managers see no more underspending
Economic managers have expressed confidence that the economy no longer has to suffer from public underspending next year after the lower house swiftly passed the proposed P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget.
Acting Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia were also confident the Senate would follow suit and speed up the budget passage.
“We have full trust and confidence in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. And just like the President, the legislature is as much concerned and conscious of the need to pass the 2020 national budget in due time after the required review and scrutiny,” Avisado said in a text message after the budget measure was passed on third and final reading.
Probability minimized
“This is welcome and I suspect the Senate will be constrained to follow suit. This minimizes the probability of a repeat of a reenacted budget,” said Pernia, the country’s chief economist and head of the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority.
Last month, Pernia warned Congress against delaying the passage of the proposed 2020 national budget—or risk growing the economy by just below 5 percent next year.
Pernia had told the House appropriations committee that operating on a reenacted budget again next year would be “regressing” and would pull down gross domestic product (GDP) expansion as “government spending and even private spending on fixed capital formation will be hampered.”
“We are hoping, we are praying that it’s not going to happen again,” Pernia had said, referring to the delayed approval of the budget.
President Duterte signed this year’s appropriations only in mid-april after the two houses of Congress squabbled over alleged insertions of “pork” funds.
P1B underspent a day
As the government operated on a reenacted 2018 budget at the start of the year, it underspent about P1 billion a day on public goods and services between January and April.
Government underspending pulled down first-half economic growth to an average of 5.5 percent, below the government’s 6-7 percent target.