Gov't incurs below ceiling budget deficit
The Duterte administration’s budget deficit fell below ceiling last year driven mainly by higher than expected revenues as well as slightly below programmed spending, the Bureau of the Treasury reported.
Data from the Treasury bureau showed Tuesday, March 1, that the national government incurred a P1.67 trillion fiscal deficit from January to December 2021, lower by 10 percent against the P1.855 ceiling.
According to the Treasury, the better than expected fiscal gap was registered after revenues hit P3.005 trillion, above by 4.3 percent versus the P2.881 trillion target.
In addition, the 1.3 percent shortfall in government expenditure, which amounted to P4.675 trillion against the P4.737 trillion goal also helped temper the financing gap.
However, last year’s budget deficit is worse than the P1.371 trillion incurred in the previous year.
In 2021, the Bureau of the Internal Revenue, which contributes about two-thirds to government coffers, also missed its collection target of P2.081 trillion by 0.92 percent to P2.078 trillion.
The Bureau of Customs, on the other hand, surpassed its P616.7 billion goal by 4.3 percent, raising P643.6 billion last year.
The national government ended the year with a budget deficit-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 8.61 percent, lower than the 9.3 percent program, still higher compared to the 7.65 percent recorded in 2020.
In December alone, the government’s budget deficit amounted to P338 billion, higher by 11.7 percent compared with P302.6 billion in the same month in 2020.
Public expenditures during the month jumped 5.2 percent to P569.3 billion, while revenues weakened by three percent to P231.3 billion.
Last year, revenue effort declined to 15.5 percent from 15.92% last year but exceeded the program of 14.52 percent.
Tax effort, meanwhile, settled at 14.13 percent, up from last year’s 13.96 percent and the program of 13.68 percent.
On the other hand, total expenditure was 24.12 percent of GDP, higher than the 23.57 percent registered in 2020 and the target of 23.87 percent.
As a percentage of expenditures, total interest payments for 2021 accounted for 9.18 percent, up from nine percent a year ago but lower than the target of 11.22 percent.
Lastly, interest payments as a percentage of total revenue was at 14.29 percent, increasing from 13.32 percent in 2020 but way below the 18.45 percent program.