The national government’s (NG) budget deficit for March 2023 widened to P210.3 billion, 12.04 percent or P22.6 billion higher than last year’s shortfall of P187.7 billion, data showed on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) traced the higher fiscal gap to an 11.99-percent decrease in government receipts even as spending was lower by 2.62 percent.
“Meanwhile, the cumulative budget gap for the first quarter of 2023 amounting to P270.9 billion dropped by 14.51 percent [P46.0 billion] on a year-to-date [YTD] basis as revenue collections improved by 4.38 percent or P34.3 billion during the period,” the treasury said.
The BTr also said that the total revenue collections for March has reached P258.7 billion, 11.99 percent or P35.2 billion lower than the previous year’s outcome of P293.9 billion.
Nevertheless, the YTD revenue for the three-month period still surpassed the P784.4 billion collected last year for the same period by 4.38 percent or P34.3 billion.
Tax collection accounted for 87.89 percent or P719.5 billion of the total with non-tax revenue contributing P99.2 billion or 12.11 percent, data from treasury showed.
“Collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue [BIR] for March slipped by 17.27 percent or P29.4 billion year-over-year [YoY] to P141.0 billion,” the BTr said.
The slower outturn for the period was due in part to the impact of the transitory provisions of the Bureau’s Revenue Memorandum Circular 5-2023 in line with Section 37 of the TRAIN Law.
“On a YTD basis, however, BIR’s P505.2-billion collection still topped the previous year’s achievement for the same period by 0.48 percent or P2.4 billion,” the BTr added.
Moreover, the Treasury said that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has raised P80.3 billion in March, rising by 13.51 percent or P9.6 billion on a YoY basis.
BOC’s overall collections of P213.8 billion as of end-March also represented a 13.40-percent improvement (or P25.3 billion) from the first quarter of 2022.
Furthermore, data also shows that income from the BTr for March slowed to P14.9 billion, down by 55.47 percent or P18.5 billion because of the high base effect of dividend remittances in 2022.
As of end-March 2023, total BTr revenue reached P39.0 billion, also declining by 19.94 percent (P9.7 billion) from last year’s P48.7 billion owing to the same reason.
“Non-tax collections from other offices including privatization proceeds and fees and charges increased to P22.0 billion in March 2023 from P16.7 billion last year, mainly because of the remittance of the unutilized balance from the Unconditional Cash Transfer program,” data shows.
The positive outturn for the period led to a higher cumulative revenue of P60.1 billion, rising by 58.59 percent or P22.2 billion YoY.
Meanwhile, the government’s expenditures for March 2023 went down by 2.62 percent or P12.6 billion YoY to P468.9 billion, and BTr explained this:
“Largely because of the lower National Tax Allotment shares of LGUs, as well as the timing of significant releases for some programs, such as the Department of Transportation’s [DOTr] Public Utility Vehicle [PUV] Service Contracting Program and Fuel Subsidy Program.”
Also, the resulting overall expenditure of P1.1 trillion for the first quarter of 2023 slightly dropped by 1.06 percent (P11.6 billion) on a YTD basis caused by lower Interest Payments (IP) for January.
The March primary expenditures (net of interest payments) reached P408.0 billion, 4.22 percent (P18.0 billion) below the previous year’s figure.
For the first quarter of 2023, primary expenditures amounted to P947.6 billion, indicating a minimal decrease of 0.45 percent from the P951.9 billion recorded in the same period a year ago, Treasury data shows.
For March, IP stood at P60.9 billion, or 9.63 percent (P5.4 billion) higher compared to the level posted in the same month in 2022.
Total IP of P142.0 billion as of end-March, on the other hand, went down by 4.92 percent or P7.4 billion YoY.
Total IP accounted for 13.03 percent of expenditures for the first quarter of 2023, down from 13.56 percent a year ago.
Similarly, IP as a percentage of revenues went down to 17.34 percent from 19.04 percent last year, data shows.