End-July budget gap widens to P279.4B

The national government’s budget deficit widened by more than a third to P279.4 billion at end-July as the jump in spending on public goods and services outpaced the increase in tax and nontax revenues.

The Bureau of the Treasury’s latest cash operations report released Wednesday showed that the fiscal deficit at the end of the first seven months increased 36 percent from the P205 billion posted during the same period last year.

End-July expenditures climbed 23 percent to P1.93 trillion from P1.58 trillion a year ago, such that the Treasury noted in a statement that disbursements to date already composed 57 percent of the P3.37-trillion expenditure program for 2018.

Combined tax and nontax collections from January to July, meanwhile, rose 21 percent to P1.65 trillion from P1.37 trillion last year.

The seven-month revenue take accounted for 58 percent of the P2.85-trillion target for the entire year, the Treasury noted.

Tax revenues mainly collected by the bureaus of Internal Revenue and of Customs grew 18 percent year-on-year to P1.47 trillion, while nontax revenues jumped 41 percent year-on-year to P179.8 billion.

For the month of July alone, the budget deficit widened by 71 percent to P86.4 billion from P50.5 billion a year ago.

Last month, expenditures climbed 34 percent to P328.1 billion from P245.1 billion.

Total revenues in July grew 24 percent to P241.7 billion from P194.6 billion during the same month last year as the tax and nontax collections rose year-on-year by 25 percent to P217.8 billion and 20 percent to P23.9 billion, respectively.

The Treasury’s income, in particular, increased 39 percent year-on-year to P11.8 billion in July “due to higher remittance of dividends on shares of stocks held by the government and the national government’s share in the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s income and the Manila International Airport Authority’s profits,” it said.

As such, the Treasury’s end-July income of P77.9 billion already exceeded by 40 percent its P55.8-billion full-year goal.