MANILA, Philippines - The National Government incurred a budget deficit of P18.501 billion in September, narrower than the P31.684 billion incurred a year ago, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday.
The September figures brought the nine-month deficit to P52.994 billion, narrower than the P259.788 billion incurred in the same period last year as the government’s disbursements fell below the expenditure program during the period.
Disbursements from January to September reached P1.070 trillion, lower the programmed expenditure program for the first nine months of the year of P1.275 trillion even as the government is trying to make up for the under spending in the first half of the year.
Revenue collections for the nine-month period reached P1.017 trillion. Of the amount, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P686.260 billion while the Bureau of Customs generated P194.607 billion or a growth of 13 percent and two percent, respectively, from a year ago.
The BTr income was recorded at P68.107 billion while collections of other offices were recorded at P68.114 billion.
In September alone, revenue collections reached P104.337 billion or P66.547 billion for the BIR and P22.615 billion for the BOC.
The BTr income and collections from other offices for the month were recorded at P6.006 billion and P9.169 billion, respectively, data from the Treasury showed. In September, disbursements amounted to P122.838 billion from P123.582 recorded in the same month last year.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the Aquino administration would continue with its efforts to improve the government’s fiscal position. He said the lower deficit, higher revenues and improving debt ratios bode well for the Philippines’ bid for an investment grade credit rating.
“Equally important, our successes on the fiscal front are helping us deal with current external challenges from a position of strength. We have the resources to support growth and to protect the vulnerable sectors of our society. Further, while many countries across the globe are reeling from fiscal and debt problems, we are pre-terminating our external debt. As you may already know, we recently bought back $1.5 billion of our external debt to lower interest expense and to smoothen maturities,” Purisima said. - By Iris C. Gonzales (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
