Yt Framework

President Benigno S. Aquino III is set to submit the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF) for fiscal year 2013 to Congress on Tuesday, a day after his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad, who will be delivering the expenditure plan to Congress on behalf of the President, said that the P2.006-trillion proposed National Budget deepens the Aquino Administration’s commitment to its Social Contract with the Filipino People.

“This proposed Empowerment Budget prioritizes funding for programs and projects that have impact in unshackling the poor from poverty and in reducing poverty incidence to 16.6 percent by 2016. President Aquino has directed us to take bold steps in closing key social service delivery gaps — in classrooms, teachers, health insurance subsidies, rural health facilities, etc. — by 2013,” he said.

“He also instructed us to build on our economic achievements so far, such as the 6.4-percent gross domestic product growth in the first quarter of 2012, by investing in the foundations of rapid, inclusive and sustained growth. With this, we are funding the attainment of rice self-sufficiency by next year; the pavement of all national roads by 2014 and all secondary roads by 2016, the arrival of 5.53 million tourists by next year and 10 million by 2016, among others,” he said.

Abad said that the combined budgetary allocations of the Social Services and Economic Services sector of P1.210 trillion for 2013 — 60.3 percent of the P2.006-trillion Budget — supports the achievement of the aforementioned targets.

The proposed 2013 National Budget consists of P1.251 trillion in Programmed New Appropriations for national government operations, programs and projects; and P755.2 billion in Automatic Appropriations for debt servicing, local government allocations and others.

Legislative action and approval will be sought for Programmed New Appropriations as well as for P177.5 billion in Unprogrammed Appropriations, or standby spending authority, which the national government may only be utilized when its revenues exceed targets.

The Budget Chief also said that the Proposed Budget for 2013 is the earliest to be submitted to Congress in the last 12.

He said that by submitting the BESF right after the SONA, the Administration is showing its commitment to ensure the early enactment of the Budget.

“Last year, the Administration and Congress worked together to ensure that the 2012 Budget becomes law by 15 December 2011: the earliest Budget enactment since the restoration of our democracy. We look forward to repeating that historical feat,” Abad said.

In the last 12 years, the Proposed Budget for 2001 was submitted on June 24, 2000, as early as the 2013 proposal’s submission, but it was not enacted. Before the Aquino administration, the last Budget to be enacted on time was the 1999 Budget, signed into law on Dec. 30, 1998.

(PNA)