PHL OUTSTANDING DEBT SEEN RISING TO P15.84T

Higher revenues

THE Marcos Jr. revenue expects better revenue collection next year is it targeting to earn P4.272 trillion from tax and non-tax measures, which is P71 billion higher than its previous target of P4.201 trillion for 2024. e expected revenue collection is also 14.56 percent higher than this year’s P3.729-trillion target. e 2024 NEP showed that tax revenues next year would rise by 15.15 percent to P4.073 trillion from this year’s P3.537 trillion. e 2024 NEP indicated that the national government is expected to generate the following amount from the various tax measures: P16.999 billion from VAT on Digital Services, P8.493 billion from Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation (PIFITA), P6.535 billion from excise tax on single-use plastics, P365 million from excise tax on pre-mixed alcoholic beverages, P75.743 billion from excise tax on sweetened beverages and junk food, and P12.4 billion from the mining scal regime. e country’s revenue-to-GDP ratio next year is expected to rise to 16.1 percent from this year’s 15.2 percent due to higher collection. Tax revenues as a share of GDP next year is expected to account for 15.3 percent compared with this year’s 14.4 percent.

Meanwhile, non-tax revenues, including privatization, by the national government in 2024, would reach P196 billion, nearly P5 billion higher than this year’s P191.1 billion programmed collections.

Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said the revenue collection target for 2024 already incorporates the anticipated earnings from new tax measures to be passed by the current administration within the year.

For next year, the Bureau of Internal Revenue is tasked to collect P3.046 trillion, higher than this year’s goal of P2.639 trillion while the Bureau of Customs is programmed to collect at least P1 trillion from its 2023 target of P874.2billion.

Disbursements

THE national government is expected to disburse P5.629 trillion next year, P401 billion more than this year’s programmed P5.228 trillion.

About P4.18 trillion of the disbursements would go to current operating expenditures while e national government’s debt service next year, which is expected to account for 12.1 percent of overall budget, would increase by 14.43 percent to P699.2 billion from this year’s P611 billion. Broken down, P670.5 billion would go to interest payments while P28.7 billion would be for net lending, based on the budget documents. e national government’s infrastructure program next year is pegged at P1.365 trillion, about 5.1 percent of GDP, which is P73 billion higher than this year’s P1.292 trillion programmed expenditure. e national government’s budget de cit next year is anticipated to fall to P1.356 trillion or about 5.1 percent of GDP. is year’s programmed budget de cit is at P1.499 trillion or about 6.1 percent of GDP.

P1.420 trillion would nance the national government’s capital outlays, based on the budget documents.

SPEAKER VOWS ‘TRANSPARENT’ 2024 BUDGET PROCESS

scal management. He said he was informed that the proposed budget also includes funds to support the country’s climate change initiatives, local government empowerment, and the development of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

He said the early presentation of the proposed spending program “provides the House ample time to study, discuss, and deliberate on the ner points of the proposal and formulate a national budget that is responsive to the development needs of the country.”

Quick e appropriations committee is tasked with deliberating on the national budget, aimed at sustaining the country’s economic growth, creating more income and job opportunities, and improving the quality of life of Filipinos through the timely delivery of social services.

HOUSE Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rep. Elizaldy Co has ensured that all the requisite processes are already in place for the House to thoroughly assess the government’s NEP for 2024.

Co said the lower chamber will work overtime to meet the House’s internal deadlines while ensuring that every centavo is allotted precisely where needed.

Co said his committee will scrutinize the NEP properly in keeping with its mandate. “By ‘properly,’ I mean making sure that we look at the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing [BESF] with a keen eye,” he said.

“I have clear marching orders from the Speaker: make sure that the budget fully supports the Marcos administration’s 8-point socioeconomic agenda through sound scal management,” Co said.

“ is necessitates the committee checking if the projected revenues and borrowings re ected in the BESF are enough to fund the expenses, and, just as importantly, if they are funding the right projects and initiatives.” e committee will also be taking into consideration the National Economic and Development Authority’s macroeconomic assumptions, on which the proposed budget is based.

“We’ll take a look at the projected Gross National Product growth rates, treasury bill rates, foreign exchange rates, population growth rates, and other economic indicators,” Co said. “We want to get assurances that these are aligned with the NEP’s slated out ows and in ows.” e 2024 NEP is pegged at P5.768 trillion, 9.5 percent higher than the current government budget.

In line with the Speaker’s directive, Co said the appropriations committee will begin deliberations on the budget next week.

“ e committee will put its nose to the grindstone so that the House will be able to approve the budget on third reading before Congress adjourns on September 30,” he said.

Budgetary fat e proposed budget items in the NEP are subject to realignment, modi cation, alteration, reduction, and/or increase, provided the budget ceiling of P5.768 trillion is not exceeded, said Lagman.

FOR his part, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said it is opportune to remind Congress members that while the President proposes the national budget, it is the Congress, more particularly the House of Representatives, that disposes of and approves the national budget through the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“ e GAA is a veritable policy statement on the government’s priority programs and projects. It is incumbent on Congress to rectify in the NEP wayward policies and rescue proposed funds which are waylaid for favored agencies and concerns,” he added.

“ e Congress must also excise any budgetary fat, whether overtly or covertly hidden in the NEP,” he said.

According to Lagman, the congressional power of the purse in the appropriation of public funds must be honored and respected even as legislators acknowledge the President’s power to disburse appropriated funds with dispatch and impartiality.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

ASMALL plane carrying a Filipino trainer pilot and an Indian student is missing in the northeastern Philippines and the search is being hampered by bad weather, civil aviation officials said Wednesday.

The Cessna 152 left from Laoag city in northern Ilocos Norte province around noon Tuesday but failed to land three hours later as expected in Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province, said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which did not immediately identify the two people on the plane.

The search efforts by the Philippine Air Force, Army troops and other government personnel Tuesday were hampered by bad weather.

A Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) helicopter and a private helicopter cut short their search flights Wednesday due to bad weather, the

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE national government civil aviation agency said.

(NG) is hiking its climate change (CC) spending next year by 17 percent to over P540 billion as it plans to strengthen the country’s mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Based on the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the national government is allocating about P543.445 billion for its CC expenditures next year, P78.946 billion higher than this year’s P464.499-billion budget.

“With global temperatures reaching record highs, floods and droughts that displace millions, we have made future-proofing a top priority of this Administration to address climate change,” President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said in his 2024 budget message that was part of the submitted NEP to the Congress on Wednesday.

The 2024 NEP showed that around 68 percent of the proposed CC budget next year or about P355.302 billion would be allocated for adaptation measures and programs while P165.396 billion would be earmarked for mitigation efforts.

The budget document indicated that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) would receive almost 60 percent of the CC allocation next year with a proposed total funding of P308.084 billion.

The DPWH’s budget for CC is higher than the combined CC funding that over 25 other government agencies and units would get next year estimated at P212.614 billion.

CAAP spokesman Eric Apolonio told The Associated Press the plane received clearance to take off from Laoag, where the weather cleared after a typhoon passed through mountainous northern region last week.

“The plane may have encountered bad weather along the way,” Apolonio said.

The last known position of the plane was northwest of Cagayan province’s Alcala town in a mountainous region where searchers suspect the plane may have crashed, the civil agency said in a statement.

Typhoon “Egay” (international code name: Doksuri) caused damage to homes, flooding and landslides in Cagayan, Ilocos Norte and other northern provinces. It also enhanced seasonal monsoon rains that swamped the capital, Manila, and other regions. AP