The Duterte administration is seeking congressional approval to spend nearly 704 billion pesos on special purpose funds and unprogrammed funds for its final budget in 2022.
Special Purpose Funds (SPF), which are lump sums, are made available to cover expenditure for specific purposes for which beneficiary departments / agencies have not yet been identified when the budget is drawn up.
Undrawn funds are items that are funded "when revenue surveys exceed resource targets or when additional grants or foreign funds are generated," according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The National Expenditure Program (NEP) presented to the legislature on Monday suggests 552.318 billion.
A total of P 440.805 billion was made available for the SPF under the 2021 state budget.
The breakdown of the programs under the SPF in the proposed 2022 budget is as follows:
-Budget support to government companies: P157.805.663.000
– Assignment to local government units: P90.374.518.000
– National Fund for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (Calamity Fund): 20,000,000,000 p
-Conditional Fund: P13,000,000,000
-Various pension fund: P38.193.939.000
– Pension and grant fund: P232.944.069.000
Not programmed resources
Obtaining COVID-19 vaccine booster syringes is high on the list of programs under non-programmed funds. The government has asked the standby authority to purchase booster doses worth 45.367 billion pesos.
The rest of the suggested assignments are as follows:
-Support for infrastructure projects and social programs: P27.690.671.000
-AFP modernization program: P5,000,000,000
-Budget support to state-owned and / or controlled companies: P24,953,019,000
-Support for projects supported from abroad: P20.150.444.000
-Risk Management Program: P15,000,000,000
-Payment of arrears of the Land Transportation Office for IT services: P2,000,000,000
– Refund of Service Development Fee for Right to Develop Nampeidai Property in Tokyo, Japan: P210.579.000
-Share of local authorities in previous years: P 14,623,000
-Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Equity Infusion under Republic Act 11211: P5,000,000,000
-Payment of staff benefits: P3.707.937.00
-Share of Local Government Units from Fiscal 2019 Excise Tax Collection on Locally Made Virginia-Type Cigarettes: P 2,544,071,000
Sales dependent
Quarterly reports on the releases from the non-programmed funds must be sent by the DBM to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Senate President, the Committee of Representatives of the House of Representatives and the Senate Finance Committee, according to the NEP.
During the House Budgets Committee deliberations on the proposed state budget of 5.024 trillion pence for 2022 on Thursday, the DBM said the unprogrammed funds would be the first to be affected if the government revenue targets were not met.
The government's revenue projections are pesos 2.88 trillion in 2021 and pesos 3.29 trillion in 2022.
"Yes, theoretically, because this means that fewer collections would generate less income," said Tina Rose Canda, DBM officer in charge, after a request from Marikina representative Stella Luz Quimbo.
Quimbo then questioned the DBM's move to put the £ 45 billion requirement for booster shots under unprogrammed resources.
The unprogrammed funds for 2021 amounted to 176.315 billion pesos.
Automatic assignments
The automatic funds are 1.67 trillion pesos, or 33.3% of the budget of 5.024 trillion pesos. This is an increase of pesos 253.7 billion, or 17.9%, compared to the 2021 budget.
Automatically earmarked expenses do not require regular annual legislative approval due to their nature and specific empowering laws, the DBM said.
Most of the increase went to the National Tax Alotment (formerly Internal
Revenue allocation), which grew 37.9%.
The proposed automatic allocations in the next year's budget include:
– National Tax Allocation (IRA): P959.000.000.000
-Bangsamoro Block Grant: P67,000,000,000
– Debt Service Interest Payment: P512.600.000.000
– Old age and life insurance premiums: P60,000,000,000
– Net Lending: P28.700.000.000
-Tax Spending Fund: P14.500.000.000
-Special accounts in the general fund: P31.100.000.000
—LDF, GMA news