THE House of Representatives has started working with Malacañang in crafting the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2021, which is expected to fund government expenditures and measures under a post COVID-19 pandemic scenario.
On the instruction of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, deputy speaker for finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, chairman of the committee on appropriations, met with Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado on Wednesday and discussed preparations for next year’s budget.
In December last year after Congress approved the 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) has said it was planning to endorse a spending program of P4.6 trillion for next year, or a P500 billion increase from this year’s appropriation.
However, during the teleconference-hearing of the House defeat COVID-19 committee last Tuesday, committee ways and means panel chairman Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said there might be a need to trim down the amount because of the expected decrease in revenues due to the pandemic.
Salceda, an economist, said he was looking “at an increase in the budget of 5 to 6 percent, instead of DBCC’s 10 to 11 percent.”
“Minus inflation of 2.5 percent, we can still grow by up to three percent (of the gross domestic product),” said the former socio-economic secretary during the Arroyo administration.
Salceda said the Department of Finance (DOF) is already projecting lower revenue collections this year because most businesses have temporarily closed shop in compliance with the 45-day Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon, which contributes to bulk of the country’s GDP.
Villafuerte said Congress, the DBCC and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would have to do a “reprioritization” of the proposed 2021 budget to focus spending on responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the House could still adopt the P4.6-trillion DBCC proposal and the expected bigger shortfall could be filled with more borrowings since the country is in “a good fiscal position.”
“We can borrow money. We are bankable. I think we can stick to that budget based on a reprioritization,” he said.
Cayetano said the House and the DBM are working together to craft the annual budget proposal to ensure a smooth budgeting process and avoid a presidential veto.
“That is what we want to do and that is what Budget Secretary Avisado wants to do — even before the President submits the budget to Congress, there is consultation with the proper committees of both the House and the Senate, instead of them preparing it and the House revising it and the Senate doing its own revision,” he said.
The economic stimulus cluster of the House of Representatives’ Defeat COVID-19 committee led by Salceda is proposing a P370-billion fiscal stimulus package to help the middle class and save businesses from the economic impact of the Luzon-wide ECQ.
Cayetano said the House is prepared to conduct another virtual session via teleconferencing if President Duterte decides to call for a special session ahead of the scheduled May 4 resumption to pass new anti-COVID measures to compliment the P275 billion budget under Republic Act (RA) No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which seeks to provide economic relief in the form of cash grants to some 18 million poor households.
Villafuerte said the government is on the right track in following this up with wage subsidies for those belonging to the lower and medium middle class whose salaries are just enough for them to meet their daily needs and those of their families.
Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co called for a conditional lifting of the ECQ to restart economic activities in select areas and help ease government’s burden.
Subject to further study and evaluation by health experts and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), Co said he is proposing the lifting of quarantine in island-provinces with zero to one case of COVID-19 in the last 15 days or — in the case of municipalities — only those with zero cases.
“The objective of quarantine lifting is to allow people, albeit in limited numbers and in select localities, to return to their jobs. We’re fighting a protracted war and until no vaccine is invented, government’s limited resources can’t support and feed all those who were displaced. We need to save government funds for the longer battle,” Co stressed.