DBCC to review economic targets next week

The inter-agency Development Budget and Coordination Committee (DBCC) will review next week the government's macroeconomic targets for this year, a Cabinet official said Friday. "We will discuss next week whether there is a need to revise some macroeconomic targets for the year," Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said. The DBCC is composed of secretaries of Department of Budget and Management and Department of Finance, the director-general of the National Economic Development Authority, the Executive Secretary, and the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. In revisiting the macroeconomic targets, the committee will take into account the global economic recovery and expected growth of the agriculture sector, Abad said. The meeting next week, Abad added, aims to discuss the impact of the government's public-private partnership initiative. Abad said that the infrastructure projects of the present administration will drive and sustain a robust domestic economy. He pointed out that the government should have to "return to basics as the government is facing no elections this year. We all know that elections play an integral role in spurring economic activities." The Aquino administration is bullish that the country's gross domestic product growth will expand between 7 and 8 percent. The DBCC would also see if this year's budget-deficit target of P290 billion — or 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) — would be lowered or not, Abad said. Last year, the government is expecting to have contained the budget gap within the P325-billion ceiling or 3.9 percent of the GDP. Finally, Abad said they will review the outstanding revenue performance of both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs. "We will see if the present collection goals are sufficient to support the government's budgetary needs," Abad said. Last year, the BIR hoped to collect P860 billion while the Customs Bureau targeted to raise P280 billion. Eventually, both agencies said they could not achieve their ambitious target. — JE/OMG, GMANews.TV