MANILA, Philippines – The government posted a P5.288 billion budget deficit in the first 2 months of the year, narrower than the P8.066 billion incurred in the same period in 2011, data from the Finance Department showed.
On Tuesday, April 3, the government announced that it had a budget surplus of P10.65 billion in February, a turnaround from the budget deficit of P21.49 billion in the same period the year before.
For January, the government previously said it incurred a budget deficit of P15.9 billion as it made good its promise of spending more to stimulate the economy.
In the first 2 months, the deficit reached P5.288 billion since:
- P245.543 billion – Revenues
- P250.831 billion – Spending
In particular, the February surplus of P10.65 billion was reached since:
- P119.189 billion – Revenues collections, a 49% year-on-year increase
- P108.5 billion – Spending, 6.9% higher
Collection agencies
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected 57.6% or P68.694 billion of the total revenues in February.
This brings the BIR collections in the 1st 2 months of the year to P153.841 billion, putting the agency on tract to meet its full-year goal of P1.066 trillion and about P3 billion ahead of its target from January to February.
“This was the highest monthly year-on-year growth in two decades without new tax measures,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said.
Bureau of Customs (BoC), meanwhile, grew its collections by 20% in February with P22.433 billion, or 18.8% of total revenues for the month.
This brings BoC’s collections in the 1st 2 months of 2012 to P44.423 billion.
Remittances from government-owned and–controlled corporations (GOCCs) boosted the February collections of the Bureau of the Treasury by more than 600%.
These remittances, which were remitted February this year, in contrast to the January remittance in 2011, pulled up year-to-date collections to P31.187 billion.
Spending
Purisima on Tuesday said the February fiscal performance reflects the government’s goal of raising more revenues and being prudent on its spending.
The government has been trying to accelerate spending after the economy grew by just 3.6% in 2011, slowing down from the pace of growth in 2010 when the economy expanded 7.6%
Analysts attributed the lackluster economy growth to lower-than-expected state spending.
“We are committed to further improve government’s balance sheet to attain investment grade rating and lower borrowings costs, while at the same time boosting investments in social and economic services to improve productivity and economic growth,” Purisima said.
The government hopes to keep the budget deficit at 2.6% of the gross domestic product in 2012. – Rappler.com
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