IN the coming weeks, Congress will again perform one of its most consequential constitutional responsibilities: scrutinizing the national budget. The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) has set the proposed 2027 national budget at P7.2 trillion, equivalent to 21.7 percent of gross domestic product. The House of Representatives will deliberate on the National Expenditure Program and examine the government’s spending priorities.
For accountants, this should be more than just an ordinary event to read about quotidianly. It should raise an important question about the profession’s public interest objectives. Should the accountancy profession be an active participant in providing and examining financial and technical inputs in the national budget?
The practice in India is an interesting model worth studying and considering. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), a statutory professional body established under India’s ‘Chartered Accountants Act of 1949,’ regularly participates in the country’s fiscal policy process through technical submissions to the government. Before the union budget, the ICAI solicits recommendations from its members and stakeholders and consolidates them into formal pre-budget proposals.
For India’s 2026 -2027 union budget, the ICAI sought proposals involving the reduction of litigation, greater tax certainty, lower compliance burdens, widening the tax base, improving tax revenues, preventing tax avoidance and rationalizing direct tax laws. These were not simply general observations.
Contributors were asked to identify specific provisions, issues, recommended changes and the rationale behind them. The ICAI subsequently presented its pre-budget recommendations to the government, covering measures affecting taxation, business reorganization, compliance, investment and revenue collection. More significantly, the ICAI reported that more than a hundred of its earlier recommendations concerning the comprehensive review of India’s income tax law were considered in the ‘Income-tax Act, 2025.’
Professional participation does not end when India’s budget is presented. After the 2026-2027 budget was introduced in Parliament, ICAI committees again invited members to examine the finance bill and submit proposals for a post-budget memorandum to India’s Ministry of Finance.
This is an important lesson here for the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Picpa). The Picpa represents a multi-faceted pool of expertise in accounting, auditing, taxation, financial management, internal controls and governance. These are the disciplines that are crucial when the government decides how trillions of pesos are raised, borrowed, allocated and ultimately spent.
The potential participation of CPAs would be advisory and technical in nature and would not interfere with the authorities and prerogatives of the Executive, the DBCC, the DBM and Congress in fiscal and budgetary allocations to the various departments of government. In principle, this would be consistent with the government’s existing policy of encouraging participation by civil society organizations and other stakeholders in the budget process. The DBM already provides avenues for stakeholder engagement during budget preparation, while Congress has likewise opened mechanisms for civil society participation in budget deliberations.
Consider the multiple factors involved in a P7.2-trillion budget: revenue projections; expenditure programs; deficits targets; financing requirements; debt service; agency absorptive capacity; procurement; contingent liabilities; subsidies; and, performance indicators. Behind every appropriation are numbers that eventually become actual collections, borrowings and disbursements.
The DBCC first establishes the macroeconomic assumptions, fiscal targets, revenue projections, expenditure levels and financing requirements that provide the framework for the national budget. On the other hand, the Picpa and the professionals can provide valuable independent perspectives regarding these assumptions involving revenue projections, sustainability of deficit financing, implications for national debt, effectiveness of internal controls, duplication of programs, measurable outcomes of appropriations and safeguards against waste.
In executing this proposal, Picpa could begin developing a structured ‘Pre-Budget Memorandum,’ patterned where appropriate after India’s experience tempered by differing situations of political, economic, and social conditions. Its committees and chapters could solicit recommendations from CPAs in public practice, commerce and industry, government and education. These could then be evaluated and consolidated into technically supported recommendations for consideration by the DBCC, the DBM and Congress.
This participation would also strengthen public understanding of the budget. Budget debates often become hot contests over which agency received more or less money. Yet the size of an appropriation alone tells the tax-paying public little about whether they are receiving value for their money.
The Commission on Audit performs the indispensable constitutional responsibility of examining how public funds have been used. But there is equally great value in applying professional financial expertise before billions are appropriated and spent.
With the proposed 2027 national budget, greater professional participation should be welcomed.
After all, CPAs should not merely help answer the question, ‘Where did the money go?’ More crucially, they should help the public get answers to the gut question, ‘Do the numbers make sense, and do the Filipino people receive value for their money?’
Ray G. Talimio Jr., CPA, is a National Officer of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Picpa) and a member of the Association of Certified Public Accountants in Public Practice (ACPAPP). The views he expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the BusinessMirror, the Picpa, the Acpapp or the organizations with which Mr. Talimio is affiliated.