The national government’s (NG) budget deficit in October stood at P49.3 billion, 17.17 percent lower than last year, which brings its year-to-date budget deficit to P348.3 billion, down 20.51 percent.
Revenues for the month climbed 5.99 percent to P261.6 billion.
“Of the total, 90.79 percent or P237.5 billion were sourced from tax collections which grew by 6.78 percent, while the remaining 9.21 percent or P24.1 billion were from non-tax sources. Cumulative revenues also improved by 9.80 percent from January to October 2018’s actual collections of P2,358.3 billion,” the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue raised P178.1 billion in October, up 8.09 percent from last year, allowing the agency to post P1.78 trillion for the 10-month period, up 10.68 percent from P1.61 trillion last year.
The Bureau of Customs also grew its October collection by 3.04 percent to P57.7 billion, bringing the aggregate total to P527.7 billion as of end-October, 7.57 percent higher than the P490.6 billion recorded in the first 10 months of 2018.
The BTr reported it contributed P10.6 billion in October, up 26.77 percent from P8.4 billion last year, fueled by higher income from NG deposits, NG’s share from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s income and dividends on NG shares of stocks.
“The resulting BTr YTD revenue of P129.2 billion also improved from last year’s performance by 30.69 percent and has already surpassed the full-year target of P73.9 billion by 74.87 percent,” the agency said.
Non-tax revenue from other offices — other non-tax including privatization proceeds and fees and charges — amounted to P13.5 billion, down 15.82 percent from last year.
“Likewise, revenues as of end-October went down by 6.68 percent to P132.3 billion compared to 2018,” the BTr said.
On the other hand, government spending stood at P310.8 billion in October, slightly up by 1.37 percent from last year, attributed to the “base effect of the sizeable P306.6 billion
(35.2 percent) outlays compared to last year.”
This brought the 10-month disbursement to hit P2.94 trillion, up 5.05 percent.
“Meanwhile, primary expenditures (total disbursements net of interest payment) improved to P2,623.2 billion, notching a 4.89 percent growth from a year ago,” the BTr said.
Total interest payments (IP) for October was at P20.7 billion, down by 13.70 percent, due to a high base effect from October 2018 IP as well as the premium from the re-issued bonds series, it said.
“On the other hand, the year-to-date interest payment of P314.5 billion is higher by 6.47 percent driven by new issues in 2018 and 2019 and coupon payment for RTBs issued this year,” the agency said.
“As a percentage of revenue and expenditures, IP from Jan-Oct 2019 accounted for 12.14 percent and 10.70 percent compared to previous year levels of 12.52 percent and 10.56 percent, respectively,” the BTr added.
