THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released 77.4 percent of the full-year budget as of end-February, the agency’s data showed.
According to data posted in its website, the DBM has released P3.17 trillion, of the P4.1 trillion 2020 obligation program as of February 29.
Allotment releases to the line departments amounted to P1.83 trillion, or 76.7 percent of the 2020 program. These include funds allocated for agencies in the executive branch, congress, the judiciary, and other constitutional offices.
Releases from special-purpose funds (SPFs) amounted to P88.7 billion, or 19 percent of the full-year program, the DBM said. SPFs are budgetary allocations in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) allocated for specific socio-economic purposes such as budgetary support to government corporations, allocation to local government units, contingent fund, miscellaneous personnel benefits fund, national disaster risk reduction, and management fund, and pension and gratuity fund.
Allotment releases for automatic appropriations, or appropriations programmed annually or for some other period prescribed by law, amounted to P1.24 trillion, or 98.9 percent of release over program.
These include the 2020 program for the internal revenue allotment of local government units, pension of ex-president/ex-president widows, special account in the general fund, net lending, interest payments, tax expenditures fund/customs duties and taxes, and retirement and life insurance premium requirements.
The DBM has also released P8.47 billion as of end-February from the continuing appropriations of the 2019 GAA for line departments and releases from SPFs.
Continuing appropriations refer to appropriations available to support obligations for a specified purpose or project, such as multi-year construction projects which require the incurrence of obligations beyond one fiscal year.
As for unprogrammed appropriations, P10.37 billion have been released. Unprogrammed appropriations are standby appropriations which authorize additional agency expenditures for priority programs and projects when revenue collections exceed the resource targets or when additional grants or foreign funds are generated.
Lastly, allotments for other automatic appropriations, amounting to P295.51 million, have also been released.
