CLARK, Pampanga – Budget and Management secretary Benjamin Diokno assured that government will continue to exercise prudent spending but clarified that underspending will never happen under the current administration.
In his speech during the consultation event with the private sector and other stakeholders dubbed “Sulong Pilipinas,” Diokno cited that infrastructure investments surpassed what was initially programed for the first nine months this year.
DBM data showed that as of end-September this year, infrastructure spending amounted to P570.8 billion, 7.2 percent higher than the P532.6 billion set for the said period.
Diokno reiterated the current government’s bid to increase infrastructure investments to as much as seven percent of domestic output by 2022 from the current four percent level, which in turn is already an improvement from around two percent in the past.
In terms of budget utilization, disbursement totaled P2.489 trillion as of last September, higher than the P2.427 trillion programmed for the period.
“We have finally put an end to underspending. Underspending is the waterloo of past administrations,” he said.
Diokno said the current government was able to address underspending after it shortened the validity of the national budget from two years to just one year “and judging by the results it’s working.”
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) on Monday released the fiscal performance report as of end-October 2018, which showed a budget deficit of P438.1 billion, 87 percent higher than the P234.9 billion same period last year.
The jump was traced to the 25 percent rise of government spending to P2.796 trillion against the P2.241 billion expenditures in end-October 2017.
Revenues also rose but at a slower pace of 18 percent to P2.358 trillion against the P2.006 trillion in the first 10 months last year.
For last October alone, spending also registered faster expansion of 35 percent to P306.6 billion against the 20 percent jump of revenues to P246.8 billion.
Revenues in October last year amounted to P205.1 billion while expenditures totaled PHP226.9 billion. (PNA/PN)
