Government reverts to budget gap in February

MANILA, Philippines — The national government’s fiscal position reverted back to a deficit in February as public spending recovered despite the continued delay in the reenacted budget, the Bureau of the Treasury said yesterday.

According to the BTr’s latest cash operations report, the national government incurred a fiscal deficit of P76.4 billion in February, a reversal of the P44.5 billion surplus in January.

The figure was also higher by 48 percent compared to the P51.7 billion deficit recorded in the same month last year.

Despite this, the BTr said the government’s fiscal deficit on a year-to-date basis still narrowed by 23 percent to P31.8 billion as of end-February, from P41.5 billion in the same period in 2018.

A deficit occurs when the government spends more than the revenues it generates.

According to the BTr, government revenues in February grew by 13 percent to P202.1 billion from P178.5 billion in the same month last year.

Of the amount, P182.6 billion came in the form of tax revenues, while the remaining P19.5 billion was sourced from non-tax collections.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), in particular, was able to generate P135.7 billion in revenues, 16 percent higher than last year’s level of P116.6 billion. Collections by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) improved by one percent to P44.2 billion from a year ago.

Non-tax revenues generated by the BTr, itself, rose by 56 percent to P9.2 billion from P5.9 billion a year ago.

“Growth was mainly due to the P4 billion dividend from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and P2.9 billion national government share in PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) income,” the BTr said.

Other offices also contributed P10.3 billion in revenues last February, up six percent from 2018.

On a year-to-date basis, government revenues from January to February amounted to P458.8 billion, 10 percent higher than the P417.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the BTr said disbursements last February grew by 21 percent to P278.5 billion from P230.2 billion in the same month in 2018, outpacing the growth in revenues.

“February 2019 expenditures grew by 21 percent to P278.5 billion in spite of the reenacted budget due to payments of accounts payable by national government agencies and the release of January internal revenue allotment for local government units that slid to February,” the Treasury said.

Interest payments accounted for P25.3 billion of this amount, three percent lower than last year’s level of P26.1 billion, while primary expenditures reached P253.2 billion, 24 percent up from P204.1 billion.