Marcos approves proposed 2024 national budget of P5.768 trillion
By Robina Asido
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2024 in a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Friday.
In a statement, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the P5.768 trillion proposed 2024 national budget shall continue to prioritize expenditures that will sustain economic growth.
“Guided by our Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, the proposed national budget will continue to prioritize expenditures outlined in the administration's 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and cater to the objectives of PDP 2023-2028," she said.
"It shall continue to reflect our commitment to pursue economic and social transformation to address the scarring effects of the pandemic, as well as the impact of inflation, by prioritizing shovel-ready investments in infrastructure projects, investments in human capital development, and sustainable agriculture and food security, among others,” she added.
Pangandaman said the proposed national budget for 2024 is equivalent to 21.8 percent of GDP and is 9.5 percent higher than this year's P5.268 trillion budget.
“It is crafted as an indispensable step towards the overarching goal to attain upper-middle-income status while bringing down the deficit to three percent of GDP and reducing the poverty rate to nine percent or single digit by 2028,” said Pangandaman.
Pangandaman said the DBM received a total of P 5.90 trillion budget proposals for FY 2024, which were thoroughly evaluated considering several factors such as the agencies’ budget utilization rates in the past years, and the alignment of their programs, activities and projects (PAPs) with the priorities outlined in the Budget Priorities Framework.
“Due to the limited fiscal space, we optimized the allocation of resources by ensuring that the PAPs that will be budgeted are implementation-ready, and must be delivered and executed on time," she said.
"This entails that the agency proposals considered are clear, comprehensive, and complete in terms of submitted supporting documents such as feasibility studies and annual procurement plans. We also referred to the agencies’ respective absorptive capacity, as we considered that a low budget utilization rate may reflect the agency's limited capacity to utilize additional funds,” Pangandaman added.
Pangandaman noted that since the proposed national budget was approved by Marcos, "it already becomes the President's Budget" which should support, uphold, and defend by all concerned agencies during congressional deliberations.
“Any adjustments in the proposed amounts will result in a zero-sum game where one agency's gain will be equivalent to another agency's loss; or one project's gain is another project's loss,” she said.
“Amidst the challenges the country has faced, we believe that by being consistent in our priorities and spending within our means on the right priorities with measurable results, we can build a truly inclusive and sustainable economy that would benefit not only the Filipinos of today, but the generations to come,” she added.
Following the approval of the president, Pangandaman said the proposed 2024 national budget will be submitted to Congress a few weeks after the second State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, which is scheduled on July 24.
Under the Constitution, the NEP must be submitted to Congress within 30 days after the SONA. The NEP is the National Government’s spending plan for the next fiscal year. Once approved by Congress, it will be known as the General Appropriations Bill, and once passed into law, the bill will be known as the General Appropriations Act. DMS
