Drastic Reduction in Unprogrammed Appropriations in Proposed 2025 Budget

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced a significant reduction in unprogrammed appropriations for the proposed P6.352-trillion national budget for 2025, cutting nearly 80% from the previous year.

“Total unprogrammed appropriations for the National Expenditure Program (NEP) next year is P158.6 billion, a decrease of P572 billion or 78.31% from this year’s P731 billion allocation,” stated Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman during a press briefing at Malacañang on Thursday.

This reduction means that unprogrammed appropriations will constitute only 2.5% of the proposed 2025 budget.

To achieve this decrease, the DBM has included all agencies’ projects in the “program level,” reducing the need for unprogrammed appropriations. Unlike programmed appropriations, which have definite funding identified at the time of budget preparation, unprogrammed appropriations provide standby authority to incur additional obligations for priority programs or projects when revenue collections exceed targets, or additional grants or foreign funds are obtained.

In response to previous concerns about the constitutionality of adding P450 billion to unprogrammed appropriations in the 2024 General Appropriations Act, the DBM clarified that these “standby appropriations” exist outside the national budget and are not automatically released without additional revenues.

The DBM also noted that foreign-assisted projects deemed implementable within the year have been included in the programmed appropriations.