Bicameral panel
approves 2015 budget
By Office of Senator Chiz
Escudero
December 10, 2014
PASAY CITY – The
proposed P2.606 trillion national spending package has been approved
by the bicameral conference committee today after revisions and fine
tunings were made on the budget version of the House of
Representatives.
Senator Chiz Escudero,
chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said the approved budget
has kept the original amount as proposed by President Benigno S.
Aquino III.
Escudero, however, said
lawmakers made some realignments amounting to P72.542 billion, a big
chunk of which came from the Unprogrammed Fund for MRT 3 buyout.
“Ang ni-restore lamang sa
MRT ay ang pambayad o pambili ng remaining outstanding bonds na
binabayaran pa rin natin na 15 percent at ang para sa pambayad ng
buwis in connection with the BOT (build-operate-transfer) contract,”
Escudero said.
In the House version, the
MRT 3 acquisition amounted to P53.9 billion. From this original
amount, the bicameral panel only restored P7.428 billion for the
rehabilitation and reconstruction of the transit system. Also, P6.520
billion was retrained for the payment of taxes of MRT 3 in connection
with its BOT contract. The panel also retained P4.4 billion for the
remaining equity buy out of the MRT 3.
Biggest realigned item
totalling to P20 billion went to the rehabilitation fund to cover
Yolanda-struck areas and other areas hit by past disasters.
Other realignments to the
budget went to Trade Remedies Fund amounting to P4.384 billion;
P10.694.754 for the incremental revenue from excise for the Department
of Health; and P472.485 million for the terminal leave pay of
Philippine Postal Office employees.
Escudero also said the 2015
budget has adopted the Senate version’s definition of savings in full
compliance with the Supreme Court decision on the Priority Development
Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program
(DAP).
The General Appropriations
Bill for 2015 has quoted en toto the entire 2013 PDAF article by the
High Tribunal defining savings as “the portions or balances of any
released appropriations in the GAA which have not been obligated.”
It also states that savings
may result from the following: non-commencement of the
program/activity/project (P/A/P) or the inability of the agency to
obligate its released allotment and implement it within the period
when the appropriation is valid. In the same manner, Escudero said the
bicameral panel-approved 2015 budget demands more fiscal
responsibility from agencies, by adding the provision that “programmed
appropriations which have not been released or allotments not
obligated due to the fault of the agency concerned shall not be
considered savings and shall revert to the General Fund.”
The 2015 budget is
distributed as follows: Social Services, Economic Services, General
Public Services, Debt Burden and Defense.
The bicameral committee is
now preparing the report for ratification today.