The Finance Department asked Congress to approved its proposed 2019 budget of P18.68 billion after the House committee on appropriations endorsed it Thursday.
The budget is under the new cash-based system in which the implementation of projects and the procurement of goods and services are done within the given fiscal year.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the DoF’s budget for 2019 would represent a decrease of 3 percent or P630 million from this year’s P19.31 billion.
Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente Salceda, the senior vice chairman of the appropriations panel, sponsored the approval of the DoF budget before the House plenary.
“As in this year’s budget, the DOF has voluntarily submitted a lower allocation under the proposed GAA [General Appropriations Act] for 2019 to set an example for other departments to operate efficiently,” Dominguez said.
“Next year’s budget for the DoF is also moored to the new cash-based budgeting system of the Duterte administration that is designed to improve the absorptive capacity of all government agencies,” he said.
The DoF’s 2018 budget is lower than its 2017 budget of P21.5 billion.
