Government barely touches 2022 budget in July

MANILA, Philippines — In its first month in office, the Marcos administration barely touched the record P5.02 trillion budget for 2022, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.

In its latest report, the DBM said that as of end-July, the government released P4.7 trillion or 93.5 percent of this year’s budget, nearly the same as the 93.2 percent budget release in June.

In the same period last year, the government only issued 86 percent or P3.88 trillion of the 2021 budget of P4.51 trillion.

Data showed that the DBM released P3.08 trillion under the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), representing the 92.3 percent of the total P3.34 trillion financing.

Automatic appropriations remained at P1.41 trillion or 83.6 percent of the P1.68 trillion aggregate funding.

Under the 2022 GAA, the DBM said it distributed 96.6 percent or P2.79 trillion of the P2.88 trillion for departments.

In terms of special purpose funds, 65.1 percent or P297.57 billion has been handed out from the P457.32 billion.

For automatic appropriations, the government already recorded 100 percent utilization for national tax allotment (P959.04 billion), block grants (P66.96 billion), special account in the general fund (P41.07 billion), and tax expenditures fund (14.5 billion).

This includes the release of the P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund under the Rice Tariffication Law.

The government spent an extra P1.75 billion on top of the P60.02 billion for retirement and life insurance premiums to cover for new hires.

Issuance of pension for former presidents or their widows remained at 90 percent or P432,000 of the total P480,000, as well as for net lending at P7.18 billion, the lowest utilization rate at 25 percent and allotment for interest payments at 50 percent or P256.56 billion.

Meanwhile, the government used up P205.04 billion for other releases, the bulk of which went to unprogrammed appropriations worth P128.35 billion.

For next year, the projected budget is 4.9 percent higher at P5.268 trillion.