Infra spending exceeds program in H1

The national government exceeded its target spending for infrastructure in the first half as state agencies fast-tracked the implementation of projects in the latter part of the period, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.

According to the latest data from the DBM, the national government disbursed P249.1 billion for actual infrastructure projects in the first six months, surpassing the P236.6 billion infrastructure spending program for the period by 5.28 percent.

Likewise, the government’s infrastructure expenditures during the period grew 8.8 percent from the P229 billion in the same period in 2016.

The DBM mainly attributed the higher-than-programmed infrastructure spending to the accelerated implementation of infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the acquisition of new equipment, such as aircraft, under the Department of National Defense’s modernization program.

The DPWH, for its part, fasttracked its project implementation starting May to recover the delays experienced in the first few months of the year, the DBM said.

For June, alone, disbursements for infrastructure rose 11.4 percent to P51.9 billion from the P46.6 billion posted in the same month last year.

“Infrastructure and other capital expenditures remained strong at nearly P52 billion as a result of the implementation of road infrastructure projects of the DPWH, payments for completed irrigation projects implemented by the NIA (National Irrigation Administration) when it was still attached to the DA (Department of Agriculture), and some capital outlay projects of state universities and colleges,” the DBM said.

Meanwhile, other capital outlays also exceeded their targets in the first half, data from the DBM showed.