Thursday, August 23, 2007 Palace endorses P1.2 trillion 2008 budget to Congress
MALACANANG submitted on Wednesday the proposed P1.236 trillion-General Appropriations Act (GAA) for next year to the House of Representatives with a promise that the government will be "self-supporting" in terms of the needed budgetary requirements.
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, Jr. turned over the national budget to Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. in a brief ceremony.
"It will be an outlay that will be supported by internal revenues. By proposing a budget which would nit be propped up by single borrowed peso, we are taking a bold step towards an era of balanced budgets," said Andaya.
He said the government will not have to borrow more since P1.108 billion will come from projected tax revenues alone and P127 billion will come from non-tax revenues. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will contribute P885 billion to the coffers while the Bureau of Customs (BOC) will pluck in P254 billion more, he added.
"All of these will be bankrolled by a budget that will not incur any debt in implementing it. After years of debt dependency, we are finally operating a self-supporting budget," Andaya said.
Andaya, a former Camarimes Sur congressman, said the borrowings will be "meager, off-budget exercises meant to refinance or retire the principal but never in support of current operating expenses."
The government is operating on a P1.1-trillion budget this year.
Andaya said by the end of next year "or a thousand days after we started putting our fiscal house in order, the deficit will be gone." "We have tamed the deficit and trimmed the debt because we have tapped our own potentials," he added.
Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said however that "while a balanced budget is ideal, it is not mandatory."
"A deficit which is under control is not a badge of fiscal flaw. More than a balanced budget, what is needed is an optimum prioritization of resources for physical and human infrastructure to attain genuine and sustainable development," he said.
Lagman has yet to be named as chairman of the appropriations panel. He is reportedly sharing the chairmanship with Quirino Representative Junie Cua.
By funding recipients, the top 10 agencies are led by Department of Education (DepEd) with a budget of P146 billion, which Andaya noted is only "consistent with the command of the Constitution to attach the highest budget priority to education."
Public works is next with P94.5 billion; defense - P56.1 billion; interior and local government - P52.6 billion; agriculture - P23.8 billion; transportation and communications - P22.3 billion; health - P16.3 billion; agrarian reform - P13 billion; justice - P10.2 billion; and foreign affairs - 10.1 billion.
General public services will also be adjusted from P182 billion to P201 billion.
While allocations for the economic, social services, defense and general public services sectors will be increased across-the-board, Andaya said the government is now reducing interest payments.
"Next year we are earmarking P295 billion, from this year's programmed P318 billion, for remittance to our creditors," he said.
The share of economic services will jump from 21 percent to 23.4 percent; social services from 28 percent to 30.06 percent ; defense from 4.7 percent to 5 percent ; general public services will be static at 16 percent .
Andaya said debt service, in contrast, will dip from 28 percent to 24 percent. He said the "savings" will be re-channeled to "productive sectors of the budget." (Sunnex)
