The Aquino administration may raise the proposed national budget for next year to P1.757 trillion from P1.68 trillion previously eyed by the Arroyo government, an official said Friday.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad, said the government may ask Congress to approve a budget of P1.7 trillion for 2011, or 14 percent more than the P1.54 trillion general appropriations act of 2010.

“The proposed budget is still being finalized,” Abad said.

He said the government would target revenues of P1.46 trillion next year to meet a deficit forecast at 3.3 percent of gross domestic product, down from an estimated 3.9 percent this year.

The previous administration was proposing that spending next year should prioritized reconstruction projects, infrastructure, basic education services, health services, social welfare services, agriculture and environment.

Given the damage and losses inflicted by typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” the government recommended that recovery and reconstruction projects should carry the objectives of “building back better,” implement quality improvements, disaster resilience and climate change adaptation.

The 2011 budget should also focus on infrastructure development, particularly asset preservation to improve the quality of infrastructure facilities in the country.

To address the education problem, they wanted the alternative ways in delivering basic education. It suggested more viable and credible alternatives to schooling, harmonization and unification of the scholarship system and student financial assistance.

The government also suggested that spending for health services should be allied with meeting the Millennium Development Goals, especially reducing the maternal mortality ratio to 52:100,000 lives births by 2015.

Social welfare services should, likewise, ensure the full coverage of one million poor household beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program or conditional cash transfer program.

Spending for agriculture, they wanted that it should be aimed at achieving food security and raise farmer's income.

And lastly, the government suggested that budget for the environment should help establish an affective response to climate change.