The national government’s budget deficit widened in March amid a two-digit drop in revenues versus the previous year’s level, according to the latest data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).
The BTr yesterday reported that the national government’s budget deficit in March rose to P210.3 billion, 12.04 percent higher compared to last year’s shortfall of P187.7 billion.
The higher fiscal gap was brought about by an 11.99- percent decrease in government receipts even as spending was lower by 2.62 percent. The cumulative budget gap of P270.9 billion, however, was still lower by 14.51 percent versus the previous year’s level of P316.8 billion as revenue collections improved by 4.38 percent during the period.
The BTr said total revenue collections in March reached P258.7 billion, P35.2 billion lower than the previous year’s outcome of P293.9 billion.
Collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for March slipped by 17.27 percent year-over-year (YoY) to P141 billion.
The BTr said the slower outturn for the period was due in part to the impact of the transitory provisions of the bureau’s Revenue Memorandum Circular no. 5-2023 in line with Section 37 of the TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) Law.
The provisions say value added tax (VAT)-registered taxpayers are no longer required to file the monthly VAT declaration for transactions starting Jan. 1, 2023, but will instead file the quarterly VAT return within 25 days following the close of each taxable quarter when the transaction transpired.
On a year-to-date basis, however, BIR’s P505.2 billion collection still topped the previous year’s achievement for the same period by 0.48 percent.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) raised P80.3 billion in March, up 13.51 percent year-on-year.
In a separate statement yesterday, the BOC reported it once again exceeded its revenue collection target for April, generating P68.274 billion compared to the goal of P68.199 billion.
This is a 3.97 percent increase from last year’s collection of P65.669 billion for the same period.
The agency’s total revenue collection for the first four months of 2023 reached P281.902 billion, surpassing the target collection of P265.220 billion by 6.29 percent. This year’s collection so far is also 10.89 percent higher than the previous year’s collection of P254.226 billion for the same period.
Meanwhile, the national government’s expenditures for March 2023 went down by 2.62 percent to P468.9 billion, which the BTr said was largely due to the lower national tax allotment shares of local government units, as well as the timing of significant releases for some programs, such as the public utility vehicle service contracting program and fuel subsidy program.
The resulting overall expenditure of P1.1 trillion for the first quarter dropped by 1.06 percent year-on-year caused by lower interest payments for January, the BTr said.
