Salceda vows to push for Budget Reform Act in 19th Congress
House Ways and Means Committee chairman and Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda has vowed to push for the Budget Reform Act in the upcoming 19th Congress.
“I will refile the bill, hopefully with enhancements from the incoming finance and budget chiefs,” Salceda said on Friday, June 3.
He was referring to two of President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s Cabinet nominees: Benjamin Diokno and Amenah Pangandaman, respectively.
House Bill (HB) 7302, or the Budget Reform Act, was introduced and approved by the House in 2018 during the 17th Congress. It pushes for transparency and participation in the national budget and strengthens the spending power of Congress.
As the economist-solon explained, the proposed act would make the following changes:
-To shift the national budget from obligation-based budgeting towards annual cash-based budgeting;
-To enforce the one-fund-concept: money received by the national government is added to the general fund and sent to the national treasury;
-To reduce arbitrary declaration of savings, discontinued or abandoned activities shall no longer be proposed for funding in the next two fiscal years; Allotments not used due to fault of the agency shall also not be considered savings; and
-To create a financial management information system for local government units (LGUs), government agencies, and government-owned or controlled corporations to use for budgeting, cash management, and accounting, with additional penalties for failures to reporting and posting of fiscal requirements.
In 2021, during the 18th Congress, Salceda refiled a revised version of the bill through HB 9214 or the proposed Budget Modernization Act.
“This is crucial because our reforms have to be two-pronged if we do not want to raise too many new taxes. We need more efficient tax collection, and spending with higher multiplier effects on productivity. The Budget Reform Act is the foundational framework for reforms on the spending side," he explained.
“I think we should add basic principles for what qualifies as effective public spending in the Budget Reform Act. Principles the Committee of Ways and Means has consistently upheld this 18th Congress, such as cost-benefit analyses, distribution of benefits across income classes, among others, should be very good principles to include in our budget process," Salceda concluded.