Govt counts costs of reenacted budget
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2018 16:26:45 +0000
Economic growth could slow substantially next year under a reenacted budget based on estimates made by the government.
“NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) estimates: GDP growth impact of -1.-2.3 ppt (percentage points) in 2019, if budget will be reenacted,” a document obtained by reporters on Monday showed.
The government is pushing Congress to approve the proposed P3.757-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) before the end of the year, with economic managers last month warning of a first-half slowdown — under a reenacted budget scenario covering three months — as no new projects can be implemented.
No figures were released and officials — who were optimistic that the government would not have to operate for an entire year on the 2018 outlay of P3.767 trillion — said the 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) growth goal of 7.0-8.0 percent would still be achieved via a second-semester surge.
The House of Representatives passed the budget bill last November 20 and the Senate initially complained that it did not have enough time to go over the proposal as Congress would be going on a break starting December 15.
In the wake of reports stating that the final GAA would only be passed by the first week of February at the latest, Senate leaders announced that they would be working on a December 13 approval to allow President Rodrigo Duterte to sign the bill before the year ends.
Allegations of “pork barrel” insertions, meanwhile, have again placed the budget bill in the spotlight and the House of Representatives will be questioning Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno today.
The document obtained by reporters, meanwhile, said that the Budget department expects disbursements to be reduced by P219.8 billion and government expenditures decline to P3.526 trillion from the programmed P3.746 trillion under a re-enacted budget.
“The failure of Congress to pass the GAA before December 31 will not allow us to (implement projects) … Add to this the election ban from March to May and you have a five-month implementation gap for our infrastructure projects,” Diokno said last month.
Employment, meanwhile, could also be reduced by as much 600,000.
“Among sectors, to be affected are the following: construction, public administration and defense, wholesale and retail trade, land transport, and education,” the document states.
An estimated 200,000-400,000 Filipinos could also be pushed into poverty, it claims.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd, meanwhile, still believes that “it’s quite remote to have a reenacted budget.”
“A reenacted budget is certainly not ideal because new projects cannot be embarked upon and old projects cannot be carried forward. So we just hope Congress can catch up,” he said.
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