Infra spending up 39%

Infrastructure spending jumped 39.1 percent year-on-year to P72.8 billion in July mainly due to disbursements for additional public works and information and communications technology (ICT) equipment.

In a report on Tuesday, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said expenditures for infrastructure and other capital outlays in July climbed from P52.3 billion a year ago. However, this was 22.9-percent lower than June’s P94.4 billion.

The DBM attributed the year-on-year increase in infrastructure disbursements mainly to projects rolled out by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that month. These included the construction, repair and rehabilitation of access, by-pass and diversion roads, bridges, drainage systems and flood mitigation structures.

Also covered by the DPWH spending were the construction of multipurpose buildings and payments for right-of-way. Disbursements for projects under the revised Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program of the Department of National Defense and accounts payable of the Philippine National Police for the delivery of information and communications technology equipment and other supplies also contributed to the higher July infrastructure spending, the DBM said.

In the first seven months of the year, total expenditures for infrastructure and other capital outlays rose 42.6 percent to P499.4 billion from P350.3 billion in the same period last year.

The DBM said the increase in end-July infrastructure spending came on the back of “the implementation of various infrastructure projects of the DPWH nationwide and capital outlay projects of various departments.”

If infrastructure components of transfers to local government units plus equities and subsidies injected into state-run corporations were included, total infrastructure disbursements from January to July reached P625.2 billion, up 35.6 percent from P461 billion a year ago, DBM data showed.

Article and Photo originally posted by Inquirer last September 16, 2021 5:24am and written by Ben O. de Vera.