Early budget submission set

Business World

Aquino okays calendar; Congress to receive proposal in July

AFTER PULLING OFF an on-schedule approval of next year’s budget, the Aquino administration is now targeting an early submission of the 2012 outlay, a Cabinet official said.

President Benigno S. C. Aquino III approved a preliminary budget process calendar last Thursday, Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said, with the government planning a July submission.

"Our goal is to submit the budget to Congress a day after the SONA (State of the Nation Address)," Mr. Abad told BusinessWorld on Monday.

Mr. Aquino’s go signal, he said, gave his department the authority to issue the budget call to government agencies.

The budget process schedule starts with the issuance of what is also known as National Budget Memorandum, which provides the guidelines and procedures for the preparation of government entities’ proposals.

Budget Undersecretary Laura B. Pascua said the first budget call would be "issued on January 6."

It will provide "exact dates," she added, explaining that the calendar signed by Mr. Aquino "only bears indicative dates and a memo of Secretary Abad asking [for the] authority to issue the budget call."

"There will be two budget calls this year: the second... that will bear the macroeconomic targets will be issued by the last week or first week of February," she added.

The Constitution gives the Executive branch 30 days after the SONA to submit its proposed outlay to Congress. The 2011 budget proposal, for example, was submitted last August 24 or 29 days after Mr. Aquino’s July 26 SONA, his first. The budget call was issued May 12.

Next year’s P1.645-trillion outlay was signed into law by Mr. Aquino last Monday -- the first time in 11 years that the national government budget was approved the same year it was proposed.

Mr. Aquino’s next SONA -- which will open the second regular session of the 15th Congress -- will be held on July 25 next year. Following the Executive’s plan, the budget should be with legislators by July 26.

Issuance of the 2012 budget call was moved from earlier plans to release it this month. Mr. Abad said this was due to "workshops" aimed at drafting action plans for the Aquino administration’s 16-point agenda -- which focuses on reducing poverty -- that is a "necessary framework" for the budget.

Following the call, Ms. Pascua said "budget forums" would be held on Jan. 6-7 with government agencies to "make sure that proposed budgets fit well to what they really need."

Consultations with civil society organizations will also be undertaken for the first time in February.

"By April, that’s the time we will ask government agencies to submit their respective budgets and from May to June we will have technical hearings regarding them," Ms. Pascua said.

A Budget department review and deliberations by the Development and Budget Coordination Committee will be held after.

"Then by around June, we will have to submit the budget to the president for signature," Ms. Pascua said.

Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio A. Abaya (1st district), House appropriations committee chairman, said early submission of the budget proposal would give Congress "30 more days to examine it."

Senator Franklin M. Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee, agreed, yesterday saying he "would support and encourage the government to do that for us to be able to pass the budget within the year." -- Prinz M. Magtulis