THE Department of Budget and Management released funds at a slower pace for the first half of this year compared to last year.
The budget department reported that it has so far released P3.83 trillion or 85.1 percent of this year’s P4.506-trillion national budget from January to June.
This is slower than the pace of budget releases in the first six months of last year at P3.78 trillion or 92.3 percent of the P4.1-trillion national budget.
Out of the amount released under this year’s national budget, P2.38 trillion or 90.1 percent of the P2.64-trillion adjusted program went to different departments.
Meanwhile, releases under special purpose funds hit P242.42 billion, equivalent to 55.1 percent of the P440.09-billion adjusted program.
Special purpose funds are appropriations in the national budget provided to cover expenditures for specific purposes for which recipient departments/agencies have not yet been identified during budget preparation.
For automatic appropriations, P1.01 trillion or 70.6 percent of the programmed P1.43 trillion was released by the budget department during the six-month period.
Broken down, releases under automatic appropriations went to Internal Revenue Allotment (P695.49 billion), interest payments (P132.89 billion), block grant to Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (P71.67 billion), retirement and life insurance premiums (P56.8 billion), special account in the general fund (P31.07 billion), tax expenditures fund/customs duties and taxes (P14.5 billion), net lending (P7.18 billion), and pension of ex-presidents or widows of ex-presidents (P480,000).
As for continuing appropriations from the 2020 national budget and Bayanihan 2, the budget department released a total of P112.1 billion.
President Duterte earlier extended the validity of appropriations of the 2020 national budget until the end of this year while appropriations under Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 were valid for obligation and disbursement only until June 30 this year.
The budget department has yet to release a final report on how much funds were left unspent following the expiration of Bayanihan 2 law but it earlier reported that P6.487 billion were left unitilized as of June 25.
After the expiration of Bayanihan 2, unobligated funds shall be reverted to the Bureau of the Treasury. Unprogrammed appropriations released by the budget department also stood at P77.07 billion while those for other automatic appropriations reached P16.13 billion.
Unprogrammed appropriations provide standby authority to incur additional agency obligations for priority programs or projects when revenue collections exceed targets or when additional foreign funds are generated.