The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P3.78-trillion, or 92.3 percent of the P4.10-trillion program of appropriations for 2020. This is a marked improvement when compared to the 85.5 percent of allotments released from January to June 2019, indicating the government’s commitment to continuously fund various programs and projects despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
As of June 30, 2020, 79.8 percent of allotment releases to line departments amounted to P2.08-trillion and include funds allocated for agencies in the Executive branch, Congress, the Judiciary, and other constitutional offices. This leaves a balance of P288.53-billion for later release.
Out of the programmed P467.9-billion appropriations for Special Purpose Funds (SPFs), the DBM has released half of the allotments amounting to P234.45-billion. SPFs are budgetary allocations in the GAA allocated for specific socio-economic purposes such as Budgetary Support to Government Corporations, Allocation to Local Government Units, Contingent Fund, Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, and Pension and Gratuity Fund.
Allotment releases for automatic appropriations, or appropriations already prescribed by laws other than the GAA, inched up to P1.26-trillion. These include 100 percent of the FY 2020 program for the Internal Revenue Allotment of local government units, Block Grant for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Special Account in the General Fund, Net Lending, Interest Payments, and Tax Expenditures Fund/Customs Duties and Taxes.
The DBM has also released P63.62-billion as of end-June from the continuing appropriations of the FY 2019 GAA for line departments and releases from SPFs.
As for unprogrammed appropriations, P149.77-billion has been released. Unprogrammed appropriations are standby appropriations which authorize additional agency expenditures for priority programs and projects when revenue collections exceed the resource targets or when additional grants or foreign funds are generated.
The DBM assures that it will continue to release the remaining funds for the rest of the year to support the operations of all national government agencies, especially those with projects and programs intended to mitigate and address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 24 June 2020, P374.89-billion has been release to fund various COVID-19 interventions.
More details can be found in https://www.dbm.gov.ph/
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