The House of Representatives terminated Tuesday night its deliberations on the proposed P21.24 billion budget for 2022 of the Department of Finance (DOF) and its attached agencies.
With Albay Representative and House appropriations committee vice chairman Joey Salceda defending the proposal, the plenary deliberations on the DOF budget ended after about two hours of interpellation by several lawmakers.
The DOF budget was discussed on the floor together with the proposed appropriations of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
For 2022, the DOF budget consists of new general appropriations totaling P21.24 billion.
If automatic (P1.64 billion) and unprogrammed appropriations (P21o million), and the budgetary support for government owned-and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) (P95 million) are included, the total proposed DOF budget for 2022 is P23.18 billion.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has said the Department’s proposed 2022 appropriations reflects the current reality of the need to modernize governance to improve the delivery of basic services to the people and be more responsive to their needs.
Dominguez said the DOF’s proposed budget also underscores the need for government offices to fast-track their digital transformation for them to thrive in the New Economy.
For fiscal year 2022, the largest budget allocations of the DOF are for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) with P10.9 billion, and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) with P4.35 billion, which will be spent to further improve tax administration and the digital transformation of these two main revenue agencies.
The BOC’s capital outlay will grow 21 times from last year’s budget because of the rollout of the Philippine Customs Modernization Project, which costs P1.58 billion.
Aside from the mandated adjustment of salaries under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL), the 20-percent hike in the BOC’s allocation for personnel services is also intended to increase its filled-up personnel positions from 2,892 in 2021 to 3,444 in 2022 so that it can beef up its enforcement capabilities.
The 21-percent rise in the BIR’s financial expenses is because of the interest expense and financing charges for the lease-purchase agreement between the Bureau and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) to provide regional BIR Offices with their own buildings to better serve the public.
While the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) may look like it has the biggest increase in next year’s budget at 96 percent from P2.16 billion in 2021 to P4.23 billion in 2022, the bulk of its appropriation is for national government (NG) operations.
Only 26 percent of the BTr’s proposed 2022 budget is for its regular operations.
The BTr’s NG expenses, which make up 74 percent of the its proposed budget, include the Philippines’ quota subscriptions or equity contributions to continue being a member of different multilateral institutions.
The proposed budget of the Office of the Secretary (OSEC) is P1.1 billion, which is 30 percent more than its appropriations this year, owing to the increase in its maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
Its proposed MOOE include operating requirements for projects such as the digital Philippine National Single Window (NSW) that will allow the automation and streamlining of trade processes among the different regulatory agencies.
The OSEC will also improve the Philippine Tax Academy (PTA), which is an essential institution that trains all revenue agencies to improve their competitiveness and expertise.
The remaining five DOF-attached agencies—Privatization and Management Office (PMO), Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), Insurance Commission (IC), Central Board of Assessment Appeals (CBAA) and the National Tax Research Center (NTRC)—have a combined proposed budget of P723.2 million pesos or around 3 percent of the total DOF budget.
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