THE government has secured a $300-million Asian Development Bank loan that will help local government units (LGUs) pursue financing and budget reforms, President Arroyo announced Wednesday.

At the second general assembly of the League of Provinces of the Philippines in Villa del Ray, Pili, Camarines Sur, the President also said she has ordered Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. to study the securitization of shortfalls in internal revenue allotments (IRA) incurred when the government operated on reenacted budgets.

“We have secured a new loan from the Asian Development Bank in the yen equivalent to $300 million for local government financing and budget reform. The program will support the DOF’s [Department of Finance] efforts to help the LGUs improve your capacities to plan and budget, as well as deliver better services for the general welfare of your constituent communities,” the President said.

She said that the program will support reforms in intergovernment fiscal relations; fiscal management, planning and public expenditure at the LGU level; LGU performance measurement and service; credit financing; and local-own source revenue.

The President said in keeping with her policy of releasing the full IRA of LGUs, she has “asked Nonoy Andaya to study how to securitize the IRA shortfalls from the years when we had reenacted budgets.”

The government operated on a reenacted budget from 2004 to 2006.

The President also urged the governors to join the LGU Assurance Program of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which will help generate higher revenue collections of national and local taxes, to complement government efforts to further improve its revenues even with better-than-expected fiscal numbers.

She said the national government deficit for 2007 was P9.4 billion as against a P63-billion target for the year, total revenues amounted to P1.13 trillion, which is P15.9 billion more than target, while interest payments declined 14 percent and posted P36.5 billion in savings.

The President said such figures allowed the government to consider either declaring a surplus or a balanced budget a year ahead of schedule but the government opted for higher spending instead to pump prime the economy amid threats of a global recession.

“We could have had a surplus or balanced budget if we wanted, but we decided to take the opportunity of our good fiscal position to provide for higher spending especially for infrastructure to sustain a high growth in 2008,” she said.

THE government has secured a $300-million Asian Development Bank loan that will help local government units (LGUs) pursue financing and budget reforms, President Arroyo announced Wednesday.

CEBU CITY—Cebu furniture exporters are pinning their hopes on new markets, particularly in the Middle East and in Russia, to cushion the effects of a reported US recession and the strengthening peso.

FEED millers are asking the Department of Agriculture (DA) to consider the suspension of tariffs levied on alternative raw materials used for making animal feeds to help them cope with the increasing cost of corn both in the local and international market.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap led the inauguration of a P33-million Zamboanga del Norte corn postharvest processing and trading center, which is expected to raise production of the grain in the province by as much as 10 percent and farmers’ incomes by as high as 50 percent.

INDEPENDENT think tank Ibon Foundation said there is a possibility that the government will resort to more taxes this year to address the fiscal crisis and ensure that it can continue its debt-servicing efforts.

THE national government is still liable for the loan obligations of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) for existing loans secured prior to Transco’s privatization.

It’s Valentine’s Day and as such, men would try to impress women by taking them out on dates to upscale restaurants where great food, ambience and service are expected.