DBM Rejects Some Spending Proposals For 2024

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the Marcos administration rejected several expenditure proposals put forward by some agencies due to the limited fiscal space of the government.

Photo Insert: According to Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, the DBM received a total of P5.9 trillion in budget proposals for the fiscal year 2024, but the amount was cut down to P5.768 trillion.

Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said recently that the DBM received a total of P5.9 trillion in budget proposals for the fiscal year 2024, but the amount was cut down to P5.768 trillion.

“Due to the limited fiscal space, we optimized the allocation of resources by ensuring that the PAPs [programs, activities and projects] that will be budgeted are implementation-ready, and must be delivered and executed on time,” Pangandaman said.

The final 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), Pangandaman said continues to prioritize expenditures that will sustain the country’s economic growth as well as consistent with the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028. The budget proposals are also aligned with President Marcos’ 8-point socio-economic agenda, she added.

“This entails that the agency proposals considered are clear, comprehensive, and complete in terms of submitted supporting documents such as feasibility studies and annual procurement plans,” Pangandaman said.

“We also referred to the agencies’ respective absorptive capacity, as we considered that a low budget utilization rate may reflect the agency's limited capacity to utilize additional funds,” she added.

However, the budget chief pointed out to agencies that the disapproval of some budget proposals does not always imply the end of their initiative, as there will always be future yearly budgets in which they may be included.

“This is not the end of it… Hopefully in the next few years, we will be more ready in presenting our implementation-ready proposals and preparing all the necessary groundwork and requirements,” Pangandaman said.

The DBM has also announced that President Marcos and his Cabinet recently approved the 2024 NEP.

“Amidst the challenges the country has faced, we believe that by being consistent in our priorities and spending within our means on the right priorities with measurable results, we can build a truly inclusive and sustainable economy that would benefit not only the Filipinos of today, but the generations to come,” Pangandaman said.

The proposed national budget for next year is equivalent to 21.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and is 9.5% higher than this year's P5.268 trillion budget.

“It is crafted as an indispensable step towards the over-arching goal to attain upper-middle-income status while bringing down the deficit to 3 percent of GDP and reducing the poverty rate to 9 percent or single digit by 2028,” Pangandaman said.

Earlier, Pangandaman had said the 2024 national budget will be submitted to Congress a few days after the second State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Bongbong Marcos, which is scheduled on July 24.

Under the Constitution, the NEP must be submitted to Congress within 30 days after the SONA. The NEP is the National Government’s spending plan for the next fiscal year. Once approved by Congress, it will be known as the General Appropriations Bill, and once passed into law, the bill will be known as the General Appropriations Act.

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