Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Wednesday they are in the “final stages” of preparing the proposed P5.768 trillion 2024 national budget.

At the Kapihan to Manila Bay forum, Pangandaman said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will be meeting with Cabinet secretaries on Thursday to approve the budget before they print the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

“We’re happy that we are now in the final stages of preparation. We had a meeting yesterday morning with the president. We showed the budget to him already. The same will be presented to the Cabinet tomorrow afternoon for their final approval,” Pangandaman said.

“Under the Constitution, we should submit the National Expenditures Program one month after the SONA. On our calendar, we will submit our SONA to the Congress one week after the 24th (of July),” she added.

Pangandaman noted that the proposed 2024 budget was 9.5 percent higher than the 2023 budget at P5.268 trillion.

“It is still one of the lowest. Usually, our budget increase is more than 10 percent, 10 to 12 percent, or 15 percent. Maybe because we’re still exiting the pandemic and we’re trying to revive the economy," she said.

Pangandaman said the Department of Finance (DOF) will be implementing administrative reforms to ensure that there will be no leakages in government revenue from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Customs (BOC) and other sources.

Pangandaman said government revenues are expected to increase from this year to 2028 because of new taxes.

Among these is the tax on sweet and salty food and beverages which Finance Secretary Ben Diokno is pushing to be enforced in 2024, instead of 2025 as initially planned.

“They will also push for more privatization. They are appraising properties. They are in the appraisal stage of real properties. It is worth almost P3 billion. And then the others are concessional loans,” she said.

Other new tax and revenue measures being pushed are rightsizing, the military and uniform personnel (MUP) pension reforms, rationalizing the mining regime, digital taxes, taxes on single-use plastics, and the continuation of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) law.

Pangandaman expressed hope that the budget will be approved faster compared to last year.

“I’m hopeful it should be faster. Last year, we submitted the NEP… it was one week before the deadline. Now, one week after SONA, we are going to submit it,” she said.

Earlier this month, she said that next year’s budget will prioritize infrastructure development, food security, digital transformation, and human capital development. Jaspearl Tan/DMS