As the country’s debt stock continued to rise in April, Malacañang said Thursday that reducing the Philippine debt remains the government's priority.
In fact, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said, the Duterte administration’s economic team already “proposed a fiscal consolidation and resource mobilization plan, containing fair, efficient, and corrective tax measures.”
“These include the expansion of value-added tax base by removing ineffective VAT exemptions except for some sectors, among others, to generate revenues,” Andanar said in a statement Thursday.
But the caveat is: the proposal will only matter if approved by the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
This is because the measures are still “subject to the consideration of the next Administration,” Andanar said
Malacañang’s remark stemmed from the data of the Bureau of Treasury showing that as of April 2022, the government’s total outstanding debt has ballooned to P12.763-trillion, up by 16 percent or P1.772 trillion from P10.991-trillion in the same month last year.
This was driven mainly by additional borrowings from both local and foreign creditors as well as the weakening peso against the US dollar, according to the bureau.