SWIFT BUDGET PASSAGE URGED

President Duterte’s economic team has sought the swift enactment by the Congress of the proposed 2021 national budget as a key component of the government’s comprehensive plan to “rebuild the economy and decisively defeat COVID-19.”

On top of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) of P4.506 trillion, the Duterte administration is also urging lawmakers to act in a “timely and decisive” manner on several economic priority measures designed to accelerate economic recovery and make support available for businesses, workers and families that were hit hard by the coronavirus-induced global crisis, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.

Dominguez made use of the recent Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC)’s briefing for the House committee on appropriations to thank the legislators from both chambers for passing a “fiscally responsible” Bayanihan To Recover As One Act (Bayanihan 2), which, he said, “allows the country to meet the challenges of economic recovery without imposing a heavy burden on future generations.”

He said the other priority measures that require prompt congressional action are the proposed Financial Institutions’ Strategic Transfer (FIST) Act, which will allow banks to dispose of bad loans and non-performing assets (NPAs) through asset management companies; and the Government Financial Institutions’ Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) bill, which seeks to allow state-run banks to form a special holding company that will infuse equity, with strict conditions, into strategically important companies facing insolvency.

Dominguez said the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE), which will immediately lower the corporate income tax (CIT) rate from 30 to 25 percent once made effective and will enhance the flexibility and efficiency of the incentives system for businesses, complete the list of priority measures that the Congress needs to act on swiftly to ensure the country’s speedy and strong recovery from the prolonged health emergency that has battered the global economy.

“The swift enactment of CREATE, FIST, GUIDE and the 2021 budget will serve to accelerate our economic recovery. We should not delay providing urgent and necessary relief to our people,” said Dominguez during last Friday’s DBCC briefing for the House appropriations panel on the proposed GAA or 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

The DBCC is composed of the heads of the Departments of Budget and Management (DBM) and of Finance (DOF), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP); and a senior representative from the Office of the President (OP).