The national government’s budget deficit slightly narrowed in September as revenue collection outstripped last year’s performance due to the above target tax take by the Bureau of Customs.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed on Wednesday, Oct. 26, that the Marcos administration incurred a P179.8 billion fiscal gap last month, down 0.64 percent compared with P180.9 billion in September last year.
The Treasury bureau attributed the decline to the faster growth of government revenue collection.
In September, revenue gained 25 percent to P288.8 billion from P231.4 billion in the previous year. This outperformed the 13 percent expansion in expenditures, totaling P468.6 billion from P412.4 billion.
The Customs bureau, the government’s second largest agency, generated P79.3 billion last month, an increase of 37 percent compared with P57.6 billion a year earlier.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which contributes about two-thirds to government coffers, meanwhile, raised P173.6 billion in September, higher by 12 percent from P154.2 billion.
Non-tax revenues also nearly doubled during the month to P35.6 billion from P17.9 billion.
Government expenditures, on the other hand, increased to P468.6 billion in September from P412.4 billion last year. Of that amount, interest payments totaled P59.9 billion, or 25 percent higher compared with last year’s P47.9 billion.
The government registered a primary deficit of P119.9 billion in September, a decline of 10 percent from P133.1 billion.
In the first eight-months of the year, the national government’s fiscal deficit decreased 11 to P1.012 trillion from P1.139 trillion in the same period last year.
The end-September budget deficit was also 20 percent lower than the P1.273 trillion ceiling for the period.
The Treasury bureau also revealed that revenues from January to September exceeded the government’s target of P2.466 trillion by seven percent to P2.657 trillion. It also grew 19 percent year-on-year from P2.237 trillion.
Total expenditures, meanwhile, improved nine percent to P3.67 trillion from P3.376 trillion. However, public spending fell short of its P3.739 trillion goal for the period.
At end-September, The government posted a primary deficit of P612.8 billion, 23 percent lower compared with P799.8 billion in the same period last year.