Development and Issues

1. Development of Public
Finance
ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

2. Overview of the
Country’s Fiscal Policy

3. Marcos’ Administration
• Fiscal Policy during the Marcos administration was primarily focused on
indirect tax collection and on government spending on economic services
and infrastructure development.
• An indirect tax is collected by one entity in the supply chain, such as a
manufacturer or retailer, and paid to the government

4. Aquino’s Administration
• The First Aquino administration inherited a large fiscal scale deficit from the
previous administration, but managed to reduce fiscal imbalance and
improve tax collection through the introduction of the 1986 tax reform
program and the value added tax.

5. Ramos’ Administration
• Experienced budget surplus due to substantial gains from the massive sale of
government assets and foreign investments.
• Privatization is the process of transferring an enterprise or industry from the
public sector to the private sector.

6. Estrada’s Administration
• Large fiscal deficit due to the decrease in tax effort and the repayment of the
Ramos administration’s debt to contractors and suppliers.

7. Arroyo’s Administration
• Enactment of Expanded Value Added Tax Law
• Underspending on public infrastructure and other capital expenditures was
observed

8. Aquino’s Administration
• His administration pursued tax evaders, narrowed the budget deficit, and
enabled the Philippines to clinch its first investment grade score from a
major credit rating company.
• An investment grade is a seal of good housekeeping. It tells investors it is
safe to do business in the country, and encourages them to put huge capital
here. An investment grade means the Philippines, as a borrowing country,
has a strong ability to pay its debt.

9. Duterte’s Administration
• The Duterte administration pushed an expansionary fiscal policy strategy
reliant on infrastructure spending, which it dubbed Build, Build, Build. In
order to fund its development strategy, the previous administration also
enacted the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN law.

10. ISSUES AND
PROBLEMS

11. Budget Deficit
• A budget deficit is a common occurrence in modern times as most
governments could not sustain the corresponding level of revenues needed
to support the budgetary requirements. The budgetary requirements are
brought about and dictated by the rising needs and expectations of the
country and people and government’s ultimate responsibility of meeting and
servicing them.

12. Budget Deficit
• In the particular case of the Philippines, which relies on foreign borrowings
to fund its infrastructure and utilities development projects, it is obvious that
when the peso is devalued vis-à-vis the international currency (the dollar),
our contracted foreign debt even further worsens the budgetary deficit as the
servicing of our foreign debt obligation is included in our yearly budgetary
appropriations.

13. Inefficiency in Budget Allocation
• According to the study of Commission on Audit (2006) The existing budget
allocation system needs improvement in order to ensure the implementation
of priority programs and projects.
• The President’s proposed budget and the approved budget consistently
exceeded the desired expenditure levels

14. Tax Collection
• The Philippine tax system currently has some of the highest income tax rates
in this region. Compared to our major ASEAN counterparts, our corporate
income tax is the highest at 30%, a rate that “turns off ” foreign investors
who prefer to do business in our low-tax neighbors.

15. Tax Collection
• In the Philippines, too many goods and services are exempted from taxes.
For instance, our value-added tax (VAT) law has 59 lines of exemptions –
more compared with the VAT laws of our neighbors which explains the
relatively low tax revenues we get. If only fewer goods were exempted – or if
only the exemptions were limited to essential goods like raw food and
medicines – then the government could boost its revenues.

16. Tax Collection
• Too many Filipinos can get away with not paying taxes. Obviously, there are
the tax evaders who are nearly impossible to catch and prosecute given our
overly strict bank secrecy law.

17. Pork Barrel
• the use of government funds for projects designed to please voters or
legislators and win votes.