Amatong suggests ‘back to basics’ vs fiscal crisis

DAVAO CITY — Increase revenue and lower expenditure.

Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong wants a "back to the basics" approach to solving the country’s fiscal crisis.

Amatong, who arrived here Friday for the Third Mindanao Working Group Meeting at the Davao Waterfront Insular Hotel, told The STAR that an integral part of the approach involves convincing even ordinary taxpayers to "get involved."

"There is really a need to make people understand what the country is going through," she said.

Amatong said the government needs to disabuse the public of the notion that only the wealthy and those in government can save the country from going down the drain.

"We should make the people understand the importance of the fiscal reforms, and at the same time urge them to pay their taxes," she said.

She said any campaign to enlist public support should focus less on "rattling off economic terms ordinary folk would find hard to comprehend" and more on reaching out in "a language that everyone could understand."

Amatong said the government is also doing its best to fight corruption.

"The battlecry now is corruption. We really have to stop corruption in all agencies. We have to stop smuggling and other such illegal activities," she said.

Amatong said the government also intends to rely more on overseas development assistance than on commercial borrowings.

"Definitely we do not want to keep on borrowing for our projects. As of now, we have a huge stock of debts and we are already having deficits," she said.