Gov't budget deficit halved in October
At A Glance
- Marcos administration significantly reduces budget deficit by over 50% due to strong revenues.
- Fiscal deficit of national government decreases to P34.4 billion, down 65% from October 2022.
- Total revenues jump 33% to P385.8 billion in October.
- Both tax and non-tax revenues improve by 34.6% and 22.3%, respectively.
- The Bureau of Internal Revenue collects P274.4 billion, a 34% increase from October 2022.
- Bureau of Customs records a 4% revenue increase to P77.9 billion.
- Bureau of the Treasury's income reaches P16.8 billion, a 27% rise from the previous year.
- Government revenues grow 9% in the first 10 months, reaching P3.223 trillion.
- 89.84% of year-to-date collection comes from taxes, 10.16% from non-tax sources.
- Government spending in October increases by 8% to P420.2 billion.
- Higher capital expenditures attributed to road infrastructure and defense and transportation projects.
The Marcos administration was able to cut the budget deficit by more than half for the year due to strong revenues, data from the Bureau of the Treasury revealed.
The fiscal gap of the national government amounted to P34.4 billion last month, showing a 65 percent decrease compared to P99.1 billion in October 2022.
This decline was the result of revenues outpacing the growth of expenditures.
According to the Treasury bureau, total revenues surged by 33 percent to reach P385.8 billion from P288.9 billion in October of the previous year.
Both tax and non-tax revenues of the government registered improvements of 34.6 percent and 22.3 percent, respectively.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government’s main tax agency, collected P274.4 billion in October, marking a 34 percent increase compared to the P263.5 billion collected in the same month in 2023.
Conversely, the Bureau of Customs recorded a four percent increase in revenues, amounting to P77.9 billion from P75.1 billion.
Meanwhile, income collected and generated by the Treasury reached P16.8 billion, a 27 percent increase from last year’s figure of P13.2 billion.
In the first 10 months of the year, government revenues increased by nine percent from P2.946 trillion to P3.223 trillion.
Breaking it down, 89.84 percent, or P2.896 trillion of the year-to-date collection, was derived from taxes, while the remaining 10.16 percent, totaling P327.6 billion, came from non-tax sources.
These non-tax revenues grew by 9.18 percent, while tax revenues increased by 11.5 percent year-over-year.
Meanwhile, government expenditure in October amounted to P420.2 billion, marking an eight percent increase from the previous year's P387.9 billion.
According to the Treasury, this growth was primarily driven by higher capital expenditures resulting from the implementation of road infrastructure projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Additionally, it was bolstered by disbursements for the modernization program of the Department of National Defense and foreign-assisted rail transport projects of the Department of Transportation.
“Larger interest payments, as well as maintenance and other operating expenses, particularly the expenditures of the Commission on Elections related to the conduct of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, also contributed to the higher spending outturn,” the Treasury said.
“However, the growth of disbursements was weighed down by the lower National Tax Allotment shares of local government units and the timing of subsidy releases to government corporations,” it added.
Total disbursements from January to October reached P4.242 trillion, a 4.5 percent increase from last year, and equivalent to 81.12 percent of the P5.228 trillion 2023 program.
The government’s budget deficit in the first 10-months of the year reached P1.018 trillion, down eight percent from P1.112 trillion a year earlier.