The Senate finance committee starts on Tuesday afternoon its committee hearings on the proposed 2010 P1.541 trillion national budget and hopes to have it passed before the end of the 2009 fiscal year.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, committee chairman, scheduled a series of public hearings on the proposed budget after it was submitted two weeks ago by Malacañang to the House of Representatives which exercises original jurisdiction over money bills.

Officials of the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC) will explain the Arroyo administration’s spending program for next fiscal year.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier asked Malacañang to submit the budget early so that both chambers of the Congress – Senate and the House -- could act on it and approve the proposed 2010 General Appropriations Act (GAA) before the end of the fiscal year.

The executive branch of government is supposed to submit the annual budget within 30 days after the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) of the President.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s SoNA was delivered on July 27 during a joint congressional plenary session, the start of the third and last regular session of the current 14th Congress.

‘’By passing the 2010 budget on time, we are expected to provide a comprehensive stimulus package for our people and the economy as a whole. This holds true since the crafted budget is aligned to focus on job creation, infrastructure spending and human capital investments,’’ Angara said.

The proposed 2010 budget is 8.06 percent higher than the adjusted P1.426 trillion budget for 2009.

Malacañang said the proposed annual government spending measure focuses on infrastructure, agriculture, education, health, poverty reduction and good governance.

This reflects a continued prioritization on current programs and projects to attain completion, it added.

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See also:

Government hopes to keep budget gap at P250-billion