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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 'Be transparent': P1.939T of 2024 budget to go solely to debt spending, says Lagman

'Be transparent': P1.939T of 2024 budget to go solely to debt spending, says Lagman

Published Aug 10, 2023 08:34 am

At A Glance

  • Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman says the national government's total expenditure on debt for next year will reach P1.939 trillion, or a whopping 33 percent of the P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP). 

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Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (Screenshot from YouTube live)

The national government's total expenditure on debt for next year will reach P1.939 trillion, or a whopping 33 percent of the P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman highlighted these figures Thursday, Aug 10, even as he asked the country’s economic managers to be "transparent" when it comes to the "totality of the expenditures of the government" on debt servicing.

On Thursday, the members of the Development and Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefed the House members on the macroeconomic assumptions of the 2024 NEP. The NEP serves as the precursor of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

In his interpellation of the DBCC, Lagman was told by Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman that the share of debt burden to the total proposed budget next year was 12.1 percent.

But Lagman, a self-styled "independent minority" congressman, said that the NEP only listed debt service for interest payment of P670.5 billion and P28.7 billion for net lending, for a total of P699.2 billion.

"Debt service on interest payments and net lending is only a smaller portion of the totality of debt servicing because the bigger portion is principal amortization in the amount of P1.34 trillion for 2024," he noted.

"When we pay the principal amortization--and we do pay that, religiously--that payment should be part of the totality of the expenditure of the national government for a particular fiscal year," argued Lagman, a lawyer.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon replied, "Under the GAA (General Appropriations Act), what we appropriate is only expenditures. The debt is only financing."

But Lagman insited that the P1.34-trillion principal amortization should be considered part of the expenditures since "we will have to pay [it] next year". De Leon answered "Yes."

"So if we pay that, that will be part of the totality of the expenditures of the government. So we have to be transparent. It is not only debt service limited to interest payments and net lending. It should be the entire universe of our expediture for debt service," Lagman said.

He said that the principal amortization payments plus the appropriated interest payments and net lending totals P1.939 trillion, an amount that the national treasurer confirmed.

The Bicolano then asked De Leon for the total expenditure for debt service percentage vis a vis the P5.768-trillion NEP, which the latter said was 32.9 percent.

"Yeah, it's 33 percent or its really more than one-third of the total expenditures of the government," Lagman said.

The 2024 NEP amount is the largest ever asked by the executive branch from Congress.

Related Tags

National Budget national expenditure program Edcel Lagman
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