Gov’t to borrow money if remaining Train law packages not passed – Briones

Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Updated 4 p.m.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones warned Wednesday that government would have to borrow money if Congress would not pass the remaining package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

The remaining package of the Train law is expected to fund the ambitious P8.4-trillion “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program of the Duterte administration.

“The adverse effect is obvious, the government will have to borrow and interest rates are higher,” Briones, who served as national treasurer during the Estrada administration, said in a briefing in Malacañang.

“If Congress will approve, and normally it will approve the proposed budget of the President, and the source of the funding will not be made available, then the recourse is to borrow,” she added.

On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte submitted to Congress his proposed P3.757-trillion cash-based national budget for 2019.

For the succeeding years, Briones said the government’s plans and programs have been “already laid out” and the government has to borrow money if the remaining Train package is not passed.

“The last recourse, of course, is to borrow and that is not the most pleasant experience one can undergo,” she said.

Briones, an economist, also rejected calls to suspend the Train law, saying it would do more harm than good.

“It’s either taxes or borrowing. It’s either taxes or no schools, hospitals, bridges, offices, and relief for our poor,” she said. /kga