DBM: Expenditures for infrastructure, capital spending up 57.7% in 2012

Expenditures for infrastructure and capital spending increased 57.7 percent in 2012 to P250.8 billion from P159 billion in 2011, the Department of Budget and Management said Tuesday. “Last year’s spending levels will buoy our growth strategy this year as we look forward to pouring more investments into infrastructure and capital outlay in 2013," said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. “The development of roads and bridges, for example—as well as ongoing initiatives to increase access to tourism hotspots and improve irrigation facilities—will help generate jobs and create thriving markets for local industries.” Spending for maintenance and other operating expenditures (MOOE) also grew, by 28 percent year-on-year to P256.7 billion. According to Abad, the “broadened implementation” of government social protection initiatives such as the conditional cash transfer program Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Personnel services rose 8.4 percent to P42.2 billion, due in part to the implementation of the last tranche of the Salary Standardization Law III, as well as the filling of vacancies at the Departments of Interior and Local Government and Education. In 2012, interest payments reached P312.8 billion from P279 billion in 2011. These include semi-annual payments due on bonds and the higher volume of bond swaps. However, spending for interest payments comprised 17.6 percent of full-year disbursements in 2012, down from 17.9 percent in 2011. — BM, GMA News