Philippine president submits national budget for 2006

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday submitted to the congress the proposed national budget of 1.05 trillion pesos (18.75 billion US dollars) for 2006.

Arroyo said the proposed budget is 14.7 percent higher than last year's 918.6 billion pesos and will invest mainly on education, transportation, digital infrastructure and various economic projects that will create jobs and improve the lives of the people.

In her statement, the president appealed to the legislators to pass the budget immediately despite the other urgent tasks at hand like the impeachment case against her and the proposed constitutional reform, saying she is "in the hope that this will be given utmost priority as a strategic weapon against the looming oil crisis and as a strategic tool to fight poverty."

Budget and Management Secretary Romulo Neri said the largest chunk of the budget would go to the social services sector with 293.9 billion pesos (5.25 billion US dollars), half of which would go to education and human resources development.

The Department of Education, as in previous years, received the largest share of the budget among government agencies with 119.1 billion pesos (2.13 billion US dollars), according to Neri.

Neri said that the expected revenues from the expanded value added tax (EVAT), whose implementation was suspended by the supreme court, are included in the sources of funds for the proposed budget.

However, he said the government would have to look for other sources should the court declare the EVAT law unconstitutional.

The government's projected revenues for 2006 are expected to reach 968.6 billion pesos (17.3 billion US dollars), 90.2 percent of which will come from taxes while the remaining will be derived from non-tax sources such as fees and charges, income, privatization proceeds and foreign grants.

The EVAT, once lifted, is expected to generate some 82.6 billion to 105 billion pesos (1.48 billion to 1.88 billion US dollars) in revenues for the government in 2006.

Source: Xinhua