4-month budget deficit narrows to P57.5B

The budget balance swung to a surplus of P55 billion in April, the month in which most taxpayers had to file their income tax returns, resulting in a narrower deficit at the end of the first four months.

Bureau of the Treasury data released Wednesday showed that revenues collected by the bureaus of Internal Revenue, of Customs and of the Treasury as well as other offices jumped 18 percent year-on-year to P246.6 billion last April.

Expenditures, while climbing by a faster 22 percent year-on-year, amounted to a lower P191.6 billion.

The surplus in April was 5-percent higher than the P52.6 billion posted during the same month last year.

As of end-April, the year-to-date budget deficit was trimmed to P57.5 billion from P112.5 billion a month ago, but reversed the P19.1-billion surplus recorded a year ago.

The outgoing Aquino administration had programmed a budget deficit of P298.6 billion by yearend, equivalent to 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

From January to April, the revenue take totaled P725.6 billion, up 7 percent year-on-year. End-April expenditures, on the other hand, reached P783.1 billion, 19-percent higher than a year ago. This meant the government spent more on public goods and services ahead of the May 9 elections.

Outgoing Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said the end-April fiscal performance reflected a “strong finish on both the revenue and expenditure sides of the (government’s) balance sheet.”

“Consistently solid fiscal performance has put the nation on its firmest fiscal footing in history. The aggressive expansion of fiscal space in a span of six years has also funded the most intensive amount of investment the country has seen—fuel for Asia’s bright star to keep burning bright in these challenging times,” Purisima said in a statement.

“In a volatile world flirting with crisis after crisis, I believe the Philippines has worked and earned the right to be defiantly optimistic,” he added.

With President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte taking over the highest post in the land, Purisima said he was “highly confident that the next administration’s economic team has what it takes to improve and build on our gains moving forward.” Ben O. de Vera