STATE infrastructure spending for the first half of the year grew to P426.6 billion on the back of faster implementation of projects amid looser quarantine restrictions.
This was a 43.2-percent increase from P297.9 billion posted in January to June last year when construction activities were hampered by stricter lockdowns amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the first six months of this year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported that the government slightly exceeded its P419.6-billion infrastructure spending program.
Among the various infrastructure projects implemented by the government during the period include the construction, repair and rehabilitation of access, by-pass, and diversion roads, bridges, and flood mitigation structures and drainage systems.
When infrastructure components of support to government-owned and -controlled corporations and transfer to local government units are accounted for, overall infrastructure disbursements for the period reached P535.9 billion. This is up by 40.3 percent from last year’s P381.9 billion.
However, overall infrastructure disbursements during the period were lower than the P568-billion program.
The DBM said infrastructure disbursements fell short of the program largely because of pending requests of subsidies from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, National Electrification Administration, National Housing Authority and National Irrigation Administration.
For June alone, government’s infrastructure spending rose to P94.4 billion, 50.4 percent higher than P62.8 billion in the same month a year ago.
For this year, the government has programmed to increase its spending for infrastructure to P1.019 trillion, equivalent to 5.1 percent of the country’s GDP.
Last year, it spent P869.5 billion for infrastructure or 4.8 percent of the country’s GDP.
The Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee also increased the infrastructure program to P1.29 trillion in 2022. It will then slightly taper off to P1.28 trillion in 2023 following the updated projections for the National Tax Allotment and the block grant to Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao before reaching P1.35 trillion in 2024.
Image courtesy of Roy Domingo