High revenue, low spending keep deficit below program

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The national government’s budget deficit as of end-September fell below program by 11.11 percent, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.

According to the BTr, the fiscal deficit narrowed to P983.5 billion in the first nine months of the year, down by 2.89 percent year-on-year, while also lower than the P1.1 trillion target.

The year-to-date deficit figure is only 66 percent of the P1.5 trillion full-year program, which the BTr said was due to higher revenue and lower expenditure performance than programmed for the period.

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For the month of September, however, the budget deficit widened to P250.9 billion, higher by 39.6 percent compared to last year’s P179.8 billion.

The fiscal outturn for the period was underpinned by an 8.06 percent year-over-year acceleration in expenditures coupled with an 11.57 percent decrease in government receipts.

National government revenue for September slowed to P255.4 billion from the P288.8 billion raised a year ago.

Nevertheless, the P2.84 trillion year-to-date collection which accounted for 76.1 percent of the P3.7 trillion full-year program still grew by 6.79 percent year-on-year and surpassed the nine-month target by 2.98 percent.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) contributed P152.2 billion for September, decreasing by 12.36 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Still, the agency managed to grow its year-to-date collection to P1.86 trillion, outperforming last year’s comparable outturn by 7.25 percent but missed the P1.93 trillion target by 3.89 percent.

To date, the BIR has already raised 70 percent of the P2.6 trillion programmed for 2023.

The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) September collection totaling P78.9 billion was just slightly below last year’s P79.3 billion.

On the other hand, the agency’s cumulative collection for the nine-month period exhibited a 3.43 percent improvement from the previous year’s achievement.

Moreover, the agency has exceeded the nine-month program by 2.52 percent while achieving 76 percent of the 2023 target.

Meanwhile, the national government’s expenditures amounted to P506.3 billion in September, 8.06 percent higher compared to the P468.6 billion recorded for the same period in 2022.

This was mainly attributed to the implementation of banner social protection and health programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Health, respectively, as well as capital outlay projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways, the BTr said.

The year-to-date disbursements ended up at P3.82 trillion, 4.12 percent larger from a year ago.

The BTr said the robust disbursement performance for the third quarter helped trim down government underspending to P40.9 billion, or 1.06 percent below the P3.82 trillion program for the first nine months of the year.

This compares to the P170.5 billion underspending recorded during the first semester, representing 6.6 percent of the program for the period.

 

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