Marcos Jr.'s budget for 2023 set at record P5.268 trillion

The full-year budget that the incoming administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will have to spend in 2023 has been set at P5.268 trillion.

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) officer-in-charge Tina Rose Marie Canda announced the proposed national budget on Tuesday at a virtual press briefing following the 181st meeting of the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) composed of the country's economic managers.

The proposed budget next year is equivalent to 22.1% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to Canda, who read the DBCC’s joint statement.

The budget ceiling approved by the economic managers is higher than the P5.242-trillion pegged by the economic team in December 2021. 

The DBCC is composed of the secretaries of Socioeconomic Planning, Finance (DOF), Budget and Management (DBM) as well as the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The economic team, according to Canda, set the cap P5.268-trillion cap for 2023 national budget due to higher projected revenue collections next year.

“As economic activity is expected to continuously pick up over the medium-term, revenue projections were revised upward to P3.633 trillion (15.3% of GDP) for 2023…,” the DBM chief said.

Likewise, the economic managers pegged next year’s disbursements to reach P5.086 trillion or 21.3% of GDP.

The DBCC also maintained its target fiscal deficit at 6.1% of the economy for 2023, according to the DBM chief.

Canda said the incoming administration of presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has to stick to the P5.268-trillion budget ceiling “for prudent fiscal management.”

“It may be tight but we have live within that level if we want to be respected in the international financial community,” the DBM chief, who also chairs the DBCC, said.

“However, we can tweak within the budget. The cap is not set in stone, the composition can actually change.

If we want to be true to our word of having good fiscal management we will stick to that level,” Canda said.

Marcos Jr., on Monday, said he is looking at the national budget for 2023 to fund any economic stimulus measure amid the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as there was little to work with under the present budget. 

The DBM chief also agreed that the next administration does not have “much leeway in so far as the budget is concerned as it has actually been comprehensibly released to the departments and agencies of the national government.”

“At this point, the DBM has already released P4.3 trillion of the budget. This is equivalent to 85% of the total programmed appropriations,” Canda said.

Nonetheless, the DBM chief said that the DBCC remains strongly committed to exercise prudent macroeconomic and fiscal management in prioritizing expenditures that translate to the betterment of micro communities in the country.

“This is reflected in the direction of the FY 2023 expenditure that prioritizes health, disaster risk management, social security, digital economy, local government support, and growth-inducing expenditures such as crucial and shovel-ready infrastructure projects. All these will bring us closer to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Canda said.

“As we transition to a new administration, we are confident that the country will not see an end to the enactment of more game-changing reforms. The DBCC stands ready to work closely with the economic managers of the incoming administration to achieve more sustainable and inclusive growth for the Filipino people,” she said.—LDF, GMA News