DBM releases 97 percent of 2023 budget

MANILA, Philippines — The government has released P5.12 trillion or 97 percent of the record P5.268 trillion budget allocation as of the end of the third quarter, with ramped up spending expected for the remainder of the year.

Latest data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed that it has issued a total of P5.12 trillion of the 2023 budget as of end-September.

This represents 97.2 percent of the national budget allocated for the year. This is also higher than the 95.6 percent released in the comparable period in 2022.

This means that only P149.91 billion is the remaining balance yet to be released by the DBM.

The DBM released a total of P3.45 trillion under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA). This is 94.1 percent of the total P3.66 trillion approved financing.

Under the 2023 GAA, additional releases were made to departments in September, inching up to 97.3 percent or P3.06 trillion of the P3.14 trillion for departments.

In terms of special purpose funds, releases increased to 74.7 percent or P386.04 billion out of the P516.55 billion.

Releases for automatic appropriations also went up and reached 87.2 percent or P1.4 trillion of the P1.61 trillion aggregate funding.

During the month of September, additional release was made for interest payments for the month, increasing to 66.7 percent at P388.68 billion out of the P582.32 billion earmarked for the specific item.

The DBM also issued an additional P1.01 billion to cover the benefits of new hires on top of the entire P64.2 billion in retirement and life insurance premiums of state workers that was already fully released in January.