2020 national budget pegged at P4.1T — DBM

The government has pegged a cash-based national budget for 2020 at P4.1 trillion, the Department of Budget and Management said Monday.

Budget Assistant Secretary Rolando Toledo made the announcement during the oversight meeting of the House Committee on Appropriations, exactly a week after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the 2019 General Appropriations Act providing for a P3.664-trillion budget for this year.

The proposed 2020 national budget is 9.1 percent higher than this year's appropriations and will likewise fund projects and programs only for the entire fiscal year.

"[The P4.1 trillion 2020 national budget] includes the estimated P233.3 billion that will be paid under the extended payment period of succeeding year," Toledo said.

"Line agencies will need to contract out and implement items during the fiscal year," he added.

Of the proposed total cash-based budget for next year, around 44 percent is allocated for Tier 1 projects which include ongoing programs and activities of various departments and agencies under the reenacted 2018 budget, Toledo said.

"Automatic appropriations, for example the internal revenue allotment, debt-lending, and special purpose funds like the local government units special shares, contingent fund, among others, will account for another P1.345.7 billion or 32.8 percent of the total budget," he said.

"That will give us a total of P3.2 trillion of the Tier 1," he added.

Because of this, a total of P911.6 billion will be left to cover Tier 2 projects, or the new or expanded programs and activities, amounting to 22.2 percent of total cash-based budget, Toledo said.

Among the priority programs of the government under the 2020 national budget are those for infrastructure development, and for the implementation of new and critical government programs and policies such as the Universal Health Care Act, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Rice Tariffication Act, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programs Act, and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Act.

Other priority programs of the government to be funded under next year's appropriations include the K-12 program, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the Unconditional Cash Transfer Program, the Risk Resiliency Program, and the Coastal Resource Management Program. — RSJ, GMA News