The government’s budget deficit fell by more than half in the first two months despite the decreased revenue collection in February, data from the Bureau of the Treasury show.
The Treasury said the budget deficit amounted to P60.6 billion in the first two months, down by 53.07 percent from P129.2 billion in the same period last year.
Revenue collection surged 14.18 percent in the two-month period to P560 billion from P490.5 billion a year earlier, while government expenditures barely grew by 0.16 percent to P620.7 billion from P619.7 billion.
Tax revenues climbed 9.66 percent to P497.7 billion from P453.9 billion, with collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue rising 9.57 percent to P364.2 billion from P332.4 billion. The Bureau of Customs raised P133.5 billion in the first two months, up 13.34 percent from P117.8 billion in the same period last year.
Non-tax revenues jumped 70.27 percent to P62.3 billion from P36.6 billion.
The Bureau of the Treasury raised P24.1 billion in the two-month period for a 57.34-percent increase from P15.3 billion in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, debt interest payments declined by 13.54 percent to P81.1 billion from P93.8 billion a year earlier.
The Treasury said, however, that budget deficit increased to P106.4 billion in February from P105.8 billion in the same month last year because of a 0.25-percent decline in revenues and unchanged expenditures.
Revenues in February fell to P211.9 billion from P212.4 billion a year ago, with BIR collection going down by 5.29 percent to P129.4 billion from P136.6 billion. The Customs raised P62.9 billion, up 5.83 percent from P59.4 billion year-on-year.
Expenditures in February were unchanged at P318.2 billion.
The government incurred a narrower budget deficit of P1.6 trillion in 2022, or 3.35 percent lower than the P1.7-trillion shortfall a year ago on faster growth in revenues that surpassed the expansion in expenditures. The 2022 budget shortfall was within the P1.7 trillion full-year program.
The 2022 deficit was equivalent to 7.33 percent of GDP, down from 8.60 percent in 2021 and below the 7.58 percent program.
It expects the budget deficit to further ease to 6.1 percent of GDP in 2023 and to the pre-pandemic level of 3 percent of GDP by 2028.