The government’s budget deficit in February widened by 48 percent to P76.4 billion from P51.7 billion a year ago, as the disbursements’ growth of 21 percent outpaced the expansion in revenue collection of 13 percent, the Bureau of the Treasury said Friday.
The Treasury said in a statement the February deficit was a reversal of the P44.5-billion surplus posted in January this year. It said the deficit of P31.8 billion in the first two months was 23 percent lower than the P41.5-billion shortfall a year ago.
Government revenues in February rose 13 percent to P202.1 billion year-on-year on cumulative collections of P458.5 billion, up from a year ago by 10 percent. In total, tax revenues made up 90 percent of the month’s collection, while non-tax sources made up the balance equivalent to P19.5 billion.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue achieved a double-digit increase of 16 percent in collections for the month to P135.7 billion. Year-to-date collections of P320.8 billion also improved 10 percent against P292.3 billion on year.
Collections by the Bureau of Customs slightly improved 1 percent in February compared with the previous year’s level of P43.7 billion. The take resulted in cumulative collections of P92.6 billion in the first two months of the year, 9 percent or P8 billion better than 2018 figure.
February income and revenue generated by the Bureau of the Treasury reached P9.2 billion, up 56 percent from P5.9 billion on year.
“Growth was mainly due to the P4.0 billion dividend from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and P2.9 billion national government share in Pagcor income. This brought BTr’s actual income to P18.8 billion as of end-February, 35 percent higher than for the same period last year,” it said.