2-mo budget deficit widens to P51.5B

The amount spent by the government on public goods and services outpaced the revenues it collected in February, resulting in a wider budget deficit of P61.7 billion.

The Bureau of the Treasury’s latest cash operations report released by the Department of Budget and Management on Wednesday showed that expenditures in February reached P240.3 billion, up 37 percent from P175.6 billion a year ago.

Total tax and nontax revenues, meanwhile, grew 18 percent to P178.5 billion from a year ago’s P151.8 billion.

As such, the budget deficit increased by 160 percent from the P23.7 billion posted in February last year.

From January to February, disbursements jumped 26 percent to P469 billion from P373.7 billion a year ago. Revenues also rose 19 percent in the first two months to P417.4 billion from a year ago’s P352.2 billion.

The budget deficit as of end-February amounted to P51.5 billion, 140-percent wider than the P21.5 billion last year.

“This shows that the fiscal program of the national government is on track, backed by strong performance in both government spending and revenue collections. We are optimistic that we will cut down underspending even further from 2.4 percent last year,” Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno told a press conference.

The Duterte administration had programmed yearly budget deficits equivalent to 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 2017 to 2022 as it wanted to ramp up spending on hard infrastructure.

By the end of this year, the budget deficit is programmed to hit P523.6 billion, Diokno said. —BEN O. DE VERA