Romero: Imperative for gov't
to submit nat'l budget early
Early submission of the proposed
national budget by government has
become imperative to avert serious
and huge loGses to'the economy
caused by delayed approval, com-
puted at F463.6 billion in the first
six months of 2019 alone.
House Deputy Speaker and
lPacman partylist Rep. Michael
Romero aired this recommenda-
tion as he lamented the economic
slowdown that. was caused by the
nearly six-month delay in the ap-
proval of the budget bill during the
current year
"Opportunity loss as a result of
the long delay in the budget ap-
provalwas 917.834 billion in 2019.
We should do everything legal to
avoid a repeat of this regretbble
situation in the future," Romero
said during the PaMlisL Forum
yesterday.
Monthly loss during the fil-st six
months of 2019 was 777.2 btllion,
said Romero, president of the Par-
tylist Coalition Foundation Inc.
The House official disclosed
that the projected Gross Domes-
tic Product growth of 6.4 percent
registered a four-year low of 5.5
percent for the first quarter
Romero, one of th€ country's
top economists, urged the Depart-
ment of Budget and Management
to make it a habit to submit the
proposed National Expenditr-rre
Progrdm on July of each year to
give Congress enough time to
scrutinize the proposal aad even-
tually approve it. - -
-'
He noted that the proposed
F4.1-trillion national budget for
next year was submitted to the
House of Representatives only
last Aug. 18, instead of the usual
tumover that coincides with the
State-of-the-Nation Address or the
fourth Monday of July.
'This way Congress will have
at least one. month addition to
the budget study. The timetable
is very important matter that our
emmomic managers should con-
sider," said the president of the
second biggest political bloc in the
House.
Romero added: "I think both
Houses of Congress should be
given at least six months to finish
the budget."
The senior administration solon
aired the optimlsm that the 2020
budget measure will be disposed
of by Congress on time, sayinq
that this will help government
economists pursue a successful
plan to catch up with the huoe
2019 losses. (Ben Rosario)
re€. L