Budget deficit swells

The National Government (NG) incurred a budget deficit of P41 billion in the first half of the year, or P9.7 billion, higher than the programmed shortfall of P31.3 billion, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves announced yesterday.

This as the government’s two revenue agencies — the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) — both failed to meet their collec-tion goals for the period.

Data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed that the BIR incurred a revenue shortfall of P38.6 billion during the period as revenues reached P334.7 billion against the target of P373.3 billion. The BOC incurred a shortfall of P13.1 billion as collections reached P92.2 billion during the period or below the target of P105.3 billion.

For the whole of 2007, the BIR has a revenue target of P730 billion while the BOC’s revenue goal is P228 billion.