The national government’s (NG) usual April budget surplus shrank by more than half this year after the annual income tax returns (AITRs) filing and payment deadline was extended by one month due to the national energy emergency, although revenues were partly supported by millions of pesos in recovered funds linked to flood-control projects amid the lingering impact of last year’s billion-peso corruption scandal.

The Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) latest cash operations report (COR) released on Tuesday, May 26, showed that the NG posted a ₱31.4-billion fiscal surplus last month, 53.3 percent lower than ₱67.3 billion recorded a year ago.

The smaller surplus was mainly due to faster government spending growth, as April expenditures on public goods and services rose 11.1 percent to ₱505.4 billion from ₱454.8 billion a year ago, outpacing the 2.8-percent increase in tax and non-tax revenues to ₱536.8 billion from ₱522.1 billion last year.

The BTr said tax revenue growth was tempered by the extension of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) fiscal year (FY) 2025 AITRs filing and payment deadline to May 15 from the usual April 15 amid the ongoing national energy emergency.

As such, the BIR’s collections last month inched up by merely 0.4 percent to ₱422.2 billion from ₱420.5 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected ₱86.3 billion last April, up 15.5 percent from ₱74.7 billion a year ago, which the BTr said was supported by strengthened valuation and monitoring systems as well as continued digitalization under its integrity, accountability, and modernization (IAM) program.

Non-tax collections also helped lift April revenues, rising 7.3 percent to ₱25.8 billion from ₱24.1 billion last year.

The BTr explained that non-tax revenues that month were supported by ₱160 million in restitution funds recovered from flood-control projects, on top of ₱623.9 million in proceeds from the privatization of idle government assets.

The recovery of flood-control funds comes in the aftermath of the corruption scandal that pushed the government to temper spending on public works, weighing on economic growth and investor confidence.

The NG’s higher disbursements in April were driven by bigger local government units’ (LGUs) national tax allotment (NTA) shares, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (BARMM) annual block grant, Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) releases, as well as larger budgetary support such as subsidies for government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs), including the return of the ₱60-billion excess funds to state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), the BTr said.

Direct payments from development partners to contractors and suppliers involved in various foreign-assisted Department of Transportation (DOTr)-implemented railway projects also contributed to the increase in April expenditures, the BTr added.

With a surplus in April, the NG’s cumulative budget deficit during the first four months of 2026 narrowed by 14.4 percent to ₱324.1 billion from ₱378.7 billion a year ago.

Total revenues collected from January to April grew by almost a tenth to ₱1.67 trillion from ₱1.52 trillion a year ago, while end-April expenditures increased 5.1 percent to nearly ₱2 trillion from ₱1.89 trillion last year.

Tax collections accounted for the bulk or 88.5 percent of the four-month revenue take at ₱1.48 trillion, up 3.5 percent from ₱1.43 trillion a year ago.

End-April non-tax revenues more than doubled to ₱192 billion from ₱90.7 billion a year ago, supported by early dividend remittances from some GOCCs.

Despite the extended tax deadline, the BIR’s four-month collections rose 2.7 percent to ₱1.14 trillion from ₱1.11 trillion a year ago, while the BOC collected ₱325.7 billion during the same period, up 6.4 percent year-on-year.

Primary expenditures—considered productive government spending because these exclude interest payments (IPs) on debt—accounted for 87.4 percent of total April disbursements at ₱441.9 billion, up 8.2 percent from ₱408.3 billion a year ago.

During the first four months, primary disbursements rose by nearly three percent to ₱1.66 trillion from ₱1.61 trillion last year.

IPs reached ₱63.5 billion in April, up 36.8 percent from ₱46.4 billion a year ago, on the back of deficit spending as well as shifts in the timing of coupon payments, according to the BTr.

From January to April, IPs climbed 17.1 percent to ₱336.7 billion from ₱287.4 billion a year ago.