THE DEPARTMENT of Budget and Management (DBM) said Friday that P4.85 trillion, or 96.5% of the 2022 budget has been released to national agencies and local government units (LGUs) as of the end of August.
The DBM’s Allotment Releases data indicate that P177.73 billion has yet to be distributed.
The release rate is running ahead of the pace in 2021. At the same stage that year, the DBM had released P4.15 trillion or nearly 92.1% of the budget.
In August 2022, releases to government agencies and departments amounted to P2.8 trillion, or 97.2% of the total.
Special Purpose (SP) funds released by the end of the month amounted to P311.18 billion, or 68.1%.
SP funds include budget support for local government units (LGUs), the Contingent Fund, the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund, and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund.
Automatic Appropriation releases amounted to P1.47 trillion, representing 87.5% of the funding total.
This includes P10 billion for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund and P1.91 billion in funding for retirement and life insurance premiums of various National Government agencies, the DBM said.
Other automatic appropriations include the National Tax Allocation for LGUs, block grants, interest payments, and the tax expenditure fund.
The national budget for 2022 is configured around recovery efforts from the pandemic. The budget is equal to 21.8% of projected gross domestic product, with about a fifth set aside for capital outlays, which include infrastructure spending.
The proposed P5.268 trillion budget for 2023 is currently in Congress, and looks to allocate even more funding for education, health, agriculture, and infrastructure. — Diego Gabriel C. Robles