Manila to adopt current budget for year 2001

Citing a drop in the city’s business activity in the last quarter of the year, the Manila city council is set to adopt this year’s budget for next year, to minimize budgetary deficits with the tax collection shortfall.

The Manila 2001 budget will remain at about P5,585,000,000 as part of the city’s austerity program due to the economic down trend primarily brought about by the political uncertainty gripping the country. Deliberation of the 2001 budget will formally start in today’s council session.

"We expect the impact of the reduced business activity in the last quarter of the year to be felt next year in terms of low tax collection," said Manila city council appropriations committee member Councilor Julio Logarta.

The 2001 budget is expected to be approved by Dec. 15 or before the council adjourns for the Christmas season.

Staff members of appropriation committee chairman Councilor Casmiro Sison said that although the same budget will be implemented, some departments in the city government will find their new allocations less than their previous ones, while others will have some additions to their budgets. Sison could not be reached to elaborate on the issue. His staffers said he is still busy refining the budget.

The 2001 budget had been undergoing daily hearings from Nov. 6 to Nov. 24.

According to Logarta, the budget slash will hit the public works department. "Perhaps we will have to cut down more on road projects and give the money to other departments next year, anyway we had many of them this year," he said.

Logarta added that although Mayor Lito Atienza has undertaken measures to perk up tax collection, like the tax amnesty program and the inauguration of the City’s "one-stop-shop tax payment centers" designed to expedite and give comfort to tax payers, collections are still expected to go down.

"I’m praising the Mayor’s tax program," said Logarta. Either Logarta or Sison will run for Manila’s sixth congressional district depending on whom Atienza will pick for the administration ticket.

Logarta said he does not expect the new budget to encounter any opposition and is confident of its approval as scheduled.

The other members of the council’s appropriation committee are Richard Ibay (vice-chair), majority floor leader Marion Lacson, Kim Atienza, Don Ramon Bagatsing, Jocelyn Dawis-Asuncion, Miles Roces, and Bernardito Ang.