House starts deliberations on proposed P6.35 trillion national budget for 2025

The House of Representatives on Monday started deliberations on the proposed P6.35 trillion national budget for 2025.

Speaker and Leyte lawmaker Martin Romualdez said such proposed budget should translate to improved quality of life for Filipinos.

“This budget is the best tool we have to ensure that all our people, especially the poor, feel the tangible benefits of our economic achievements,” Romualdez said.

The first day of the proposed 2025 national budget deliberations before the House appropriations panel kicked off with the budget presentations of the agencies led by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, Secretary Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority, and Governor Eli Remolona Jr. of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“Sabay-sabay ang pag-angat. Walang mahuhuli. Walang maiiwan,” Romualdez added.

(We’ll rise together. No one will lag or be left behind.)

The Department of Budget and Management submitted the proposed budget to the House on July 29.

The proposed national budget is higher than the approved 2024 budget of P5.768 trillion.

In a separate statement, Finance chief Ralph Recto said the country is on track to meet its medium-term fiscal program that reduces deficit and debt gradually, creates more jobs, increases incomes and reduces poverty.

Recto said the Finance Department scouted for more resources without imposing new taxes on the people to fund the proposed national budget by increasing the government-owned and -controlled corporations’ (GOCCs) dividend rates to 75% from 50% in 2024.

Recto also touted that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have posted higher collection performances through digitalization, strict enforcement, and plugging of tax leakages, especially from e-commerce, with total revenue collection from January to June 2024 growing by 15.6%, amounting to P2.15 trillion.

“We have ensured that every peso to be collected or borrowed will be stretched to deliver the biggest bang per buck for the Filipino people,” Recto told the House appropriations panel.

Expenditures, Recto said, also grew by 14.6% in the same period, reaching P2.76 trillion. In the first quarter of 2024, Recto said the expenditure-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 19.7%.

“The fiscal deficit has remained very manageable at P613.9 billion, way below the mid-year target. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit stood at 4.5% in the first quarter of the year,” Recto said.

“Over the medium term, the government expects revenues to grow by an average of 10.3% annually. Revenues as a percentage of GDP will also increase from 16.1% in 2024 to 17.0% in 2028. Tax collections are expected to rise by 11.8% annually, driven by projected double-digit collection growths of the BIR and BOC,” Recto added.—KG/RF, GMA Integrated News