Double-digit revenue growth, coupled with slower spending, allowed the Marcos administration to narrow the first-quarter fiscal hole by a fifth to ₱355.5 billion.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the national government’s (NG) budget deficit for the first quarter declined by ₱90.5 billion from the ₱446 billion shortfall recorded during the same period in 2025.

This improvement comes despite a two-percent increase in the March deficit, which widened to ₱349.7 billion as expenditure growth of ₱32.6 billion outpaced the ₱25.8 billion rise in revenues for that month.

Total revenues for the three-month period improved by 13.7 percent to ₱1.14 trillion, compared with last year’s ₱998.2 billion, as both tax and non-tax collections grew. For March alone, total collections rose to ₱305.1 billion, up by 9.3 percent from the ₱279.3 billion raked in last year.

Of the country’s tax authorities, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raised ₱187.3 billion in March, a 6.6 percent increase from the previous year. This brought the BIR's total collections for the first quarter to ₱719.2 billion, up 4.2 percent from the first three months of 2025.

“This growth is driven by the bureau’s intensified tax administration, digital transformation, and aggressive efforts to curb revenue leakages,” the BTr said.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected ₱84.8 billion in March, up 5.5 percent from ₱80.4 billion last year. For the first quarter, the BOC’s cumulative collections reached ₱239.4 billion, a 3.5 percent improvement.

This performance was driven by the Integrity, Accountability, and Modernization (IAM) Program, which auctioned forfeited luxury assets and enforced strict compliance through intensified post-clearance audits.

During the first quarter, non-tax revenues surged to ₱166.1 billion, more than doubling the ₱66.6 billion collected in the same period in 2025.

According to the Treasury, this jump was driven by earlier-than-usual dividend remittances by government-owned and/or controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Government spending for March grew by 5.2 percent, with disbursements reaching ₱654.8 billion. This brought year-to-date disbursements as of end-March to ₱1.49 trillion, a 3.2 percent increase from the ₱1.44 trillion recorded in the prior year.

The Treasury cited higher National Tax Allotment (NTA) shares for local government units, as well as releases for their special shares from tobacco excise tax proceeds, as primary drivers of spending.

March spending was buoyed by increased budgetary support for GOCCs and a ₱20 billion release to the Department of Energy (DOE) to implement the government’s Emergency Energy Program, which aims to augment the country’s fuel supply amid the Middle East conflict.