The national government’s budget deficit narrowed in May as revenues posted a double-digit hike while expenditures slightly contracted from the year ago level.
According to the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) report released yesterday, the national government registered a budget deficit of P146.8 billion in May, down by 26.72 percent from the P200.3 billion recorded a year ago.
Michael Ricafort, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist, said the narrower budget deficit could be attributed to the 45-day election ban on some public works, which could have led to the slowdown in government expenditures during the election month of May 2022.
“Moreover, measures to further re-open the economy towards greater normalcy, with the lowest Alert Level 1 for Metro Manila and other areas since March 2022 could have increased government tax revenue collections with more businesses operating at higher capacity and with more sales revenues, thereby partly contributed to the narrower budget deficit in May 2022 versus a year ago,” Ricafort said.
The year-to-date budget gap likewise declined by 18.99 percent to P458.7 billion from the previous year’s outturn of P566.2 billion.
The BTr reported that total revenues grew by 18.91 percent to P304.9 billion for the month compared to P256.4 billion collected in May 2021.
Year-to-date collection amounting to P1.44 trillion also reflected a 15.46 percent improvement over last year’s comparable revenue performance of P1.24 trillion.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) collections amounted to P216.6 billion, a 17.91 percent increase from the P183.7 billion logged in the same month last year.
Likewise, BIR’s total collection of P959 billion as of end-May beat last year’s performance for the same period of P872.4 billion by 9.92 percent.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected P66.3 billion in May, registering year-on-year growth of 36.35 percent from the P48.6 billion generated in May 2021, the highest growth achieved since the beginning of the year.
This drove BOC’s cumulative collections to P320.5 billion as of end-May 2022, 28.42 percent above the previous year’s outcome of P249.6 billion.
Meanwhile, the P451.7 billion national government expenditure for the month was slightly lower by 1.1 percent compared to last year’s P456.7 billion.
The year-to-date disbursements of P1.9 trillion however still outperformed the January to May 2021 level of P1.81 trillion by 4.69 percent.
Primary spending net of interest payment was at P417.9 billion, down by 2.32 percent year-on-year.
The cumulative primary expenditures as of end-May stood at P1.68 trillion, 2.64 percent higher than comparable figures last year.
