THE national government posted a P551.716-billion budget deficit in the first half of the year as spending outpaced revenues during the period, latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed.
The six-month period deficit was 18.17 percent lower than the P674.2 billion shortfall registered by the national government (NG) last year owing to “higher revenue outturn.”
The latest budget deficit was 28.49 percent lower than the NG’s P771.5-billion mid-year deficit program as actual expenditures fell short of target disbursements.
The NG’s first-semester revenues rose by 7.68 percent to P1.86 trillion from P1.727 trillion last year, while its expenditure inched up to P2.411 trillion from P2.401 trillion on an annual basis.
The Treasury said about 89 percent of the State’s revenue collections from January to June came from taxes, while the remaining 11 percent was from non-tax collections.
Collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in the first half grew by 7.65 percent year-on-year to P1.219 trillion from P1.132 trillion.
Despite the increase, the BIR missed its P1.251-trillion revenue target set by the NG for the six-month period.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected a total of P433.4 billion for the first half, about P36.7 billion higher than its P396.7-billion revenue last year. The BOC was also able to surpass its six-month revenue target of P420.7 billion by P12.8 billion.
Earnings by the Treasury, meanwhile, declined by 10.68 percent to P93 billion from P104.1 billion.
“Nevertheless, BTr’s [Bureau of the Treasury] 6-month performance surpassed the program for the period by 92.20 percent or P44.6 billion and was already 59.52 percent [P34.7 billion] higher than the P58.3 billion full-year program driven by higher income from BSF investment, dividend remittances, as well as NG share from Pagcor profit and interest income from NG deposits,” the Treasury said.
The Treasury said revenue collections from other offices, such as those from privatization proceeds, rose to P110.2 billion in the first half, surpassing both last years’ figures and the target set by the national government. The amount was P28.1 billion higher than last year’s P82 billion and was also P28.4 billion than the programmed amount of P81.7 billion.
In terms of expenditure, the national government fell short of meeting its P2.6-trillion programmed spending for the first half of the year. The national government was short by P170.5 billion to hit its P2.582-trillion target expenditure for the first six months of the year.
“The lower-than-programmed Interest Payments [IP]; ongoing implementation of some social protection programs, particularly the registration and validation of beneficiaries; as well as billing concerns from suppliers/creditors, such as late submissions of billing statements and compliance with documentary requirements have affected the spending outturn for the period,” the Treasury said.
Earlier, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno attributed the NG’s higher-than-expected revenues to better tax administration, such as cracking down on fake receipts, higher privatization earnings and digitalization efforts.
However, despite the higher revenues, he flagged the slow spending by government agencies.
The finance chief noted that the government is collecting more revenues than forecasted, while government agencies are underspending, which may cause delays in infrastructure programs, thereby hampering economic development.
“We are below our deficit target. For fiscal conservatives, that is nice, but not necessarily nice for development,” he told reporters last month.
“That is not good [for us] because we are trying to pick up for the pandemic and also, a big part of our budget is really infrastructure,” he added.
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