Gov’t debt rises to P5.64T

The national government’s level of debt rose marginally at the end of April as the government borrowed more during the period as tax and customs collections fell short of official targets.

Documents from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the outstanding debt of the national government stood at P5.64 trillion as of end-April, 0.2 percent or P12-billion higher than the previous month’s level.

Year-on-year, the state’s debt rose 6.2 percent or by P331 billion, with domestic and external obligations increasing by 7.2 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. Of the total debt stock, domestic debt accounted for 65 percent while the rest came from external borrowing.

Total debt guaranteed by the national government or the so-called contingent liabilities amounted to P468 billion, or 0.7-percent or P3-billion lower on a month-on-month basis. Year-on-year, these guaranteed obligations were down 1.5 percent. “This is primarily due to the reduction in external guaranteed obligations —a product of net repayments and currency adjustments,” the Treasury said.

The growth in the national government’s debt as of April over the same month last year was slower than the 6.57-percent increase in March.

Increasing borrowings during the period came as the country’s main revenue-generating agencies, the bureaus of internal revenue and of customs missed their collection targets for the four-month period.

Although revenues have grown at a healthy pace, neither the BIR nor the BOC met any of their monthly collection goals, which were set by the Department of Finance at the start of the year.

Latest data showed that for the month of April, BIR collections stood at P156.1 billion, 4.78-percent higher year-on-year. However, this was the slowest growth for any month so far this year. The BIR’s revenue was also short of the goal of P176.51 billion for the month. Customs collections were up 13.4 percent to P30.76 billion in April from a year ago. But the growth rate was less than March’s 34-percent expansion. The BOC was also P5-billion short of its target for the month.