Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the delay in the approval of the 2019 national budget is costing the government around half a billion a day that will “certainly” affect the economy in the first quarter.
“I just computed it. The budget delay cost the government P46 billion for the first quarter. In other words, we cannot spend P46 billion of what we planned to do,” Dominguez said at the sidelines of the annual reception for the banking community at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Friday evening.
“You know how much P46 billion is? Half a billion a day. So that is the amount of money that is not circulating. That is not going to serve the public with infrastructure projects, etc. Half a billion a day. That’s a result of the budget delay,” Dominguez said.
He said the government would miss the best opportunity to implement infrastructure projects during the most appropriate time of the year.
“And this is the best time to start projects. So you missed that. So our GDP for the Q1 is certainly going to be affected,” he said.
BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said a reenacted budget was one of the “sour points” of the economy this year.
“Hopefully, Congress will be able to reconcile the two versions between the Senate and the House and come up at least in the first quarter so that there will be no delay not only in the infra but also in the payment of the payables and the payment of salaries of outtsourced personnel,” Guinigundo said.
The Budget Department on Jan. 3 issued the guidelines for the reenacted budget in the first quarter of the year pending the congressional approval of the 2019 General Appropriations bill.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the DBM would continue to oversee the budgetary operations of the national government, especially as it runs on a reenacted budget for presumably the first quarter of 2019.
“We will do what we can to minimize the damage to the Philippine economy, particularly public construction. You see, as early as the first working day of the year, we have come up with the guidelines for fund releases under the reenacted budget,” Diokno said in a statement.
“The sooner the 2019 GAA is passed, the better for the economy and the Filipino people. Ramping up our investments on infrastructure and social services will only be sustainable if the budget is authorized by Congress,” he said.
Pending the Congressional approval of the 2019 General Appropriations Bill, the national budget for fiscal year 2018 was deemed reenacted as mandated by Section 25 (7), Article VI of the Constitution. The reenacted budget will remain in force until such time that the GAB is passed into law by Congress.
Pending the approval of the 2019 GAA, national government agencies receiving allotment or notice of cash allocation from the DBM are authorized to obligate the amount corresponding to their actual requirements for the first quarter of 2019, but not exceeding certain percentages.
