The national government’s budget deficit decelerated last month owing to the substantial reduction in spending for coronavirus response compared with last year, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.
The Duterte administration incurred a P44.4 billion fiscal gap in April, down by 84 percent compared with P273.9 billion in the same month last year.
According to the Treasury, the significant decrease was attributable to substantial decline in COVID-19 spending from the height of the imposition of the enhanced community quarantines last year.
The April budget balance brought the year-to-date cumulative fiscal deficit to P365.9 billion, up 1.6 percent year-on-year from P360 billion.
Based on the Treasury report, expenditures went down by 27 percent in April to P336.3 billion from P461.7 billion a year ago. Of that amount, interest payments cornered only P23.8 billion, but higher by 8.8 percent from P21.9 billion.
At end-April, the national government’s total expenditures had jumped 3.3 percent to P1.354 trillion from P1.311 trillion.
Meanwhile, revenues hit P291.9 billion last month, an increase of 55 percent compared with P187.8 billion in the same month in 2020. Tax collections totaled P272 billion, an improvement of 118 percent year-on-year from P124.9 billion.
The Treasury said better tax collections were driven by payment of income taxes during the month. Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P219 billion, while the Bureau of Customs raised P51.8 billion.
Non-tex revenues, on the other hand, fell by 69 percent to P19.9 biblio from P62.8. billion a year earlier. In particular, income of the Treasury decreased 84 percent during the month from P58.3 billion to P9 billion.
In the first four-months of 2021, total revenues stood at P988.4 billion, higher by four percent compared with P950.8 billion in the same period last year.
Last week, the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), a body that sets the macroeconomic targets of the country, hiked the fiscal deficit program this year to 9.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 8.9 percent.
The economic managers tweaked the budget deficit assumption as they revised upwards their earlier spending programs while maintaining the projected revenue levels during the two-year period.
The DBCC estimated that disbursements this year will increase by additional 1.7 percent to P4.74 trillion from P4.66 trillion due to funding requirements to support Bayanihan II, including the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, among others.
Revenues, on the other hand, are maintained at the DBCC approved levels in December last year at P2.88 trillion for 2021 and at P3.29 trillion for next year.