Inter-agency committee to review government financing

Government is plugging loopholes in revenue management and considering repealing laws that allow the automatic allocation of funds.

Department of Finance (DOF) sources said the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) will study if such appropriations of revenues are still relevant, and if not, these could be channeled back to the general fund.

The DBCC, composed of the DOF, Department of Budget and Management, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and National Economic and Development Authority met last week to discuss the medium-term financing of the government.

The agenda also included reviewing the earnings of state-run agencies that are automatically earmarked for social programs such as the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) whose earnings go to the Office of the President.

The DBCC was supposed to come up with a list of these so-called earmarked revenues that could be reverted to the general fund.

The proposed measures, according to DOF sources, will help in easing government’s perennial fiscal deficit problem since this will improve the management of expenditures.

The government is relying on controlled spending aside from boosting revenue collection to reduce this year’s budget deficit and achieve a zero deficit by 2006.

Government sources said the results of the DBCC review will be the basis for the proposed bill to be recommended to Congress soon.

The so-called "wiper bill" is seen to eliminate earmarkings and use the funds for other priority projects, the sources said.

The DOF added it also plans to recall from state-run agencies about P10 billion in special funds meant to be lent out to small enterprises at subsidized rates.

These funds will instead be transferred to government financial institutions and will be relent at market rates.