Use ‘automatic savings’ to fight COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s budget managers should consider tapping as much as P200 billion to P400 billion in “automatic savings” from unused appropriations in the 2020 outlay because of the Luzon-wide lockdown.

Otherwise, such funds would go to the travel expenses of some officials, suggested by Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr.

The proposed cuts to nonessential expenses in the 2020 spending law can be declared as savings as early as now and used in the country’s fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), he added.

—DJ Yap

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