What are the Top 10 sectors receiving highest allocation in proposed 2025 budget?

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Tuesday bared the Top 10 sectors that will be receiving the highest allocations under the proposed P6.352 trillion national budget in 2025.

During the Senate’s deliberations on the proposed National Expenditure Program next year, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman revealed that the Education and Public Works sectors will receive the biggest chunk of the government’s budget next year.

The allocations for each of the Top 10 sectors are broken down as follows:

• Education (Department of Education, state universities and colleges, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) - P977.6 billion
• Public Works (Department of Public Works and Highways) - P900 billion
• Health (Department of Health and PhilHealth) - P297.6 billion
• Department of the Interior and Local Government - P278.4 billion
• Department of National Defense - P256.1 billion
• Department of Social Welfare and Development - P230.1 billion
• Agriculture (Department of Agriculture and Department of Agrarian Reform) - P211.3 billion
• Department of Transportation - P180.9 billion
• Judiciary - P63.6 billion
• Department of Justice - P40.6 billion.

The DBM submitted the proposed budget to the House on July 29.

The proposed national budget is higher than the approved 2024 budget of P5.768 trillion.

The Budget chief said the DBM received as much as P9.2 trillion worth of budget proposals, but only approved P6.352 trillion.

"Given our limited fiscal space and with our fiscal program in mind… we have the set budget ceiling at P6.352 trillion as approved by the DBCC (Development Budget Coordination Committee),” Pangandaman said.

As far as utilization, as measured by obligation rate, of the 2024 budget as of the first half of the year , the Top 10 agencies are the following:

• Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity - 91.4% 
• National Intelligence Coordinating Agency - 80.4%
• Department of Public Works and Highways - 70.5%
• Department of Finance - 69.6%
• Department of Foreign Affairs - 58.5%
• Department of the Interior and Local Government - 56.8%
• Commission on Elections - 55.7%
• Department of National Defense - 52.5%
• Department of Transportation - 51.3%
• Department of Agriculture - 51.3%

Pangandaman said budget utilization is a major consideration in allocating budget, adding that 65.4% of the P5.652 trillion 2024 budget has been obligated.

"High budget utilization rate reflects the agency's absorptive capacity to utilize additional funds," the DBM head said.—RF, GMA Integrated News