The country’s budget deficit narrowed in March as revenues recorded a double-digit hike, outpacing the slight increase in expenditures.
According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the government incurred a P195.9 billion budget shortfall in March, 6.82 percent lower versus last year’s P210.3 billion.
This led to a cumulative budget gap of P272.6 billion for the first quarter of 2024, marking a slight increase of 0.65 percent from the P270.9 billion fiscal deficit recorded for the same period a year ago.
Government revenue collection increased by 11.32 percent to P287.9 billion in March 2024 from P258.7 billion last year.
This pushed the year-to-date revenue to P933.7 billion, 14.05 percent higher than the P818.7 billion in the first three months of 2023.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P145.3 billion for March, growing by 3.11 percent from P141 billion in 2023.
This improved the agency’s overall collection for the first quarter of 2024 to P591.8 billion, 17.15 percent better than the previous year’s outturn.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) registered a 6.78 percent contraction year-on-year in its March collection of P74.9 billion partly due to fewer working days for the month compared to last year, the BTr said.
Nevertheless, BOC’s cumulative collection for the three-month period amounting to P218.9 billion still outperformed the previous year’s performance by 2.35 percent.
Income from the BTr for March climbed to P49.1 billion, surpassing the previous year’s collection by more than threefold.
The significant increase for the month was primarily driven by higher dividend remittances, interest on advances from government-owned and -controlled corporations and the national government’s share from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s income.
This drove the bureau’s first quarter collection to P72.3 billion, rising by 85.26 percent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the national government’s expenditures grew moderately by 3.18 percent year-on-year in March 2024, reaching P483.8 billion.
While higher disbursements were recorded in departments and agencies, the growth of spending in March was weighed down by the lower subsidies to government corporations and transfers to local government units (LGUs), in particular the special shares of LGUs in the proceeds of national taxes, the BTr said.
The BTr added that the transfer of the P15 billion Coco Levy Funds to the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund for this year is still expected this April; whereas last year’s release was made in March.
Nevertheless, total first quarter 2024 expenditures rose by 10.72 percent to reach P1.2 trillion.
