Gov’t won’t rely on Marcos funds to trim deficit

The National Government (NG) need not rely on the possible one-time gain from the return of about $658 million in forfeited Marcos funds to boost its fiscal position, the Finance Department said yesterday.

Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said the fiscal performance during the first six months was already a vast improvement, both from target levels and the previous year’s record.

"We are pleased with our fiscal account management during the first half of this year, which is integral to government’s objective to maintain macroeconomic stability and supporting continued growth," he said.

Camacho attributed the improvement to government’s efforts to institute reform measures aimed at both strengthening the enforcement of tax collection laws and increasing revenue collection efficiency.

"Six months of revenue collection out-performance is no small achievement and we must recognize the hard work of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs in implementing important reforms to identify and resolve cases of tax evasion and hold revenue staff to performance measures," Camacho said.

Total revenue collection amounted to P306.3 billion in the first semester, about 15 percent higher than a year ago and 7.3 percent more than the P285.5 billion target.

Total disbursement, on the other hand, was kept at a low of P385.9 billion, also an improvement from last year’s actual spending and this year’s target.

Hence, the resulting budget deficit of P79.6 billion was a third lower than the past year and 22.2 percent below the target level of P102.2 billion.

Camacho said with the significantly strong revenue collection coupled with prudent spending, the National Government is on track to outperform its target deficit of P202 billion for the full year.

Nonetheless, he said the DOF will continue to lobby for congressional support on legislation to further improve the country’s tax system. These include laws on indexation and rationalization of excise taxes on key products, the passage of the National Revenue Authority Bill, and enactment of the proposed Fiscal Responsibility Act.