Expenses for personnel services took a major share in the proposed 2021 national government budget due to the need to hire more health care professionals and workers as well as pay the scheduled salary increase for government employees, and the increase in pension of military and other uniformed services retirees.
Themed “Reset, Rebound and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability, ”the proposed P4.506-trillion spending program for 2021 was submitted to the House of Representatives by Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado on Tuesday,
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano promptly said that the chamber will work to have the budget approved in record time and he wanted the 2021 General Appropriations Act signed by the President by late November, just in time for his scheduled stepping down as the House’s top official.
Personnel services accounts for 29.2 percent or P1.32 trillion of the proposed expenditure, House officials who have done an initial review of the budget bill said.
The DBM on the other hand said the 29.2 percent share of personnel services as due to the “]huge additional hiring of health workers under the Human Resource for Health Program of the Department of Health (DOH), the second tranche implementation of the Salary Standardization Law of 2019, and the increased pension requirements of military and uniformed personnel.”
Under the Salary Standardization Law that was enacted during the watch of President Rodrigo Duterte, the more than 1.4 million government employees will be granted salary increases in four tranches starting January 2020 and ending in 2023.
Duterte also signed the law that increased the monthly old-age pension of living war veterans from P5,000 to P20,000. Those who previously did not receive pensions from the military were also entitled to the P15,000 increase in the monthly old-age pension.
Capital outlays at P920.5 billion or 20.4 percent of the proposed budget will be spent for projects to be undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Transportation, that were alloted 14.7 percent and 42.5 percent respectively.
The third biggest share is for Maintenance, Operating, and Other Expenditures at P699.4 billion.
A total of P560.2 billion has been alloted for payment of maturing debts while support to government-owned and -controlled corporations amounts to P157.5 billion.
Another P14.5 billion was set aside for tax expenditures.
In a statement, the DBM said: “Every peso of the P4.506-trillion FY 2021 NEP (National Expenditure Program) went through numerous budget hearings and consultations with the agencies.”