THE cash utilization rate of government agencies hit 94% in the ten months to October, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.
The DBM reported that the National Government, local governments and state-owned companies used P3.39 trillion of the P3.6 trillion worth of notices of cash allocation (NCAs) issued as of the end of October.
Unused NCAs amounted to P209.5 billion.
The NCA utilization rate was on pace with the 94% rate posted a year earlier.
NCAs are a quarterly disbursement authority that the DBM issues to agencies, allowing them to withdraw funds from the Bureau of the Treasury to support their spending needs.
As of the end of October, line departments had used 92% of their allotments, equivalent to P2.46 trillion of their P2.67 trillion NCAs issued.
In the 10 months to October, the Commission on Audit was the only department to post a 100% budget usage rate.
Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology had the lowest utilization rate of 35%.
Earlier, the DBM reported that it had released 95.8% of the 2023 national budget at the end of October, equivalent to P5.294 trillion of the adjusted P5.529-trillion 2023 spending plan.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said that the government needs to ramp up its spending in order to support economic growth.
“The cash utilization rate could still pick up for the rest of 2023 and will help contribute more to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, as part of the intervention measures by the government,” he said in a Viber message.
Government agencies were ordered to come up with catch-up plans for spending after low levels of budget utilization in the first half. Government spending contracted by 7.1% in the second quarter. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson