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Public participation vital in crafting 2024 budget: DBM chief

By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos

February 7, 2023, 10:24 am

MANILA – Public participation in the budget preparation process will enable the government to come up with a "responsive" spending plan for 2024, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has said.

In a recent interview with SMNI News Channel's "Business and Politics," Pangandaman urged the public to participate in the preparation of the 2024 national allocation, saying their role is crucial in incorporating the Marcos administration's development goals in next year's budget.

"We want the people to participate so that we ensure our budget is something that is responsive in adherence to our eight-point socioeconomic agenda and our PDP (Philippine Development Plan)... to reach our goal of single-digit poverty level, decrease our deficit, and achieve the high-middle income status of the country,” Pangandaman said.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already started its series of budget consultations with national government agencies, government-owned or -controlled corporations, as part of the preparatory stage for the crafting of the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Pangandaman said the DBM will also consult the private sector, local government units (LGUs), and the academe as it worked with the first full-year budget of the Marcos administration.

"We are preparing our 2024 budget now. We ask the national government agencies, our GOCCs... even the LGUs to take part in our consultations,” she said.

Pangandaman said the DBM is set to come up with the budget framework by April.

Utilization of 2023 budget

Pangandaman also stressed the importance of utilizing the 2023 budget allocations of all government agencies to sustain the country's economic growth.

She urged the state departments and offices to spend at least 80 to 90 percent of their respective budgets.

This, as she said the 2023 budget was crafted to attain the economic objectives set in the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF).

"The PHP5.268-trillion budget that the President signed is consistent with that eight-point socioeconomic agenda," she said.

The 2023 national budget supports the Marcos administration's overall goals to reinvigorate job creation and reduce poverty by steering the economy back to its high-growth path in the near term and sustaining high, inclusive, and resilient growth all through 2028.

It also sets the path to attain the headline goals of the Marcos administration, such as bringing down the deficit to 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028; achieving less than 60 percent debt-to-GDP ratio by 2025; and reaching a 9 percent or single-digit poverty rate by 2028. (PNA)

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