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SWIFT APPROVAL of next year’s proposed budget and legislation to curb poverty, encourage investments and improve tax administration highlighted yesterday’s opening of the second regular session of the 15th Congress.
“In due time, the proposed national budget for 2012 will also be submitted to this chamber. I hope we can pass it promptly as we did the General Appropriations Act of 2011. This will be an opportune time to assess the various programs of this administration under what they called ‘reform budget,’” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in his opening statement.
Malacañang is expected to submit to the House of Representatives today the proposed P1.816-trillion budget for 2012. This year’s budget was enacted into law in time for the start of the fiscal year in January.
Mr. Enrile also noted public expectations to address “economic needs,” even as he challenged both houses of Congress “to explore the possibility of introducing amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.”
“This very important issues must be debated on openly and intelligently as we try to help infuse the economy with sufficient stimuli that will spur growth in our industries and businesses and create more jobs for our people,” he added.
Congressional action might not come soon on the proposition, Mr. Enrile admitted, “but now is the appropriate time to lay it down on the table.”
Other priorities of the Senate, he said, are the national land use policy, anti-trust bill and rationalizing fiscal incentives.
Mr. Enrile also drew attention on the need to pass the People’s Survival Fund Bill that will complement efforts so far done to mitigate the impact of natural disasters, such as the Climate Change Act and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Act.
Also in need of immediate attention, he added, was the upgrade of military assets to defend the country’s territory.
The Senate will further efforts to unveil “multibillion-peso anomalies in the financial transactions of certain government institutions.”
House priorities
At the House of Representatives, Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr. called on his colleagues to “continue to craft laws that will enable government to address poverty and hunger, and create opportunities for our countrymen to escape its curse.”
To this end, he called for the institutionalization of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. The CCT provides poor families with monthly subsidies provided that their children attend school and have regular visits to health centers.
Mr. Belmonte also said the House leadership will “act on key fiscal issues” such as the fiscal responsibility act, amendments to the Tariff and Customs Code and reform of the land valuation system; and measures that will “drastically improve tax administration and plug leakages in the tax system” such as rationalization of fiscal incentives, review of existing value-added tax exemptions and restructuring of the tobacco and alcohol excise taxes.
Measures on anti-trust, pocket open skies, national land use, cybercrime prevention and amendments to the build-operate-transfer law and Electric Power Industry Reform Act will also be prioritized by the House, said Mr. Belmonte.
Congressmen were also urged to “act with immediacy” on the Reproductive Health Bill, Freedom of Information Bill, 12-year basic education, National Student Loan Program and mandatory health insurance coverage, among others. — Noemi M. Gonzales with inputs from RRD
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Source: Business World, July 26, 2011
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