End-Aug budget gap widens to P282B

Faster and bigger spending on public goods and services led to a P2.6-billion budget deficit in August, a reversal of the P28.8-billion surplus posted a year ago.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed that expenditures last month jumped 29 percent year-on-year to P259.5 billion.

The disbursements in August exceeded the P256.9 billion in tax and non-tax revenues collected by the government that month, which were 11-percent higher year-on-year.

“Productive” government spending or the amount spent on infrastructure and other capital outlays, payments for personnel services and maintenance expenditures, subsidies and equity infusions—net of interest payments—rose by 32 percent year-on-year to P231.2 billion in August.

Interest payments for borrowings, meanwhile, rose by 7 percent year-on-year to P28.3 billion.

From January to August, the government spent a total of P2.191 trillion, up 23 percent from P1.778 trillion in the same eight-month period last year.

Expenditures net of interest payments increased 26 percent to P1.953 trillion, accounting for 89 percent of total spending year-to-date, the Treasury said in a statement.

“Thus far, 65 percent of the P3.37-trillion full-year program has been disbursed as of end-August,” the Treasury noted.

The disbursements as of August exceeded the eight-month revenue take of P1.9 trillion, which grew by 19 percent from P1.6 trillion a year ago.

As such, the government posted a P282-billion budget deficit as of end-August, 60-percent bigger than the P176.2-billion eight-month deficit last year.

The Treasury said 67 percent of the P2.846-trillion revenue program for 2018 was already collected during the first eight months, given improved performance of the two largest tax-collection agencies.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s tax take, net of tax refunds, in August grew 8 percent year-on-year to P185.1 billion, bringing its eight-month collections to P1.314 trillion, up 13 percent from a year ago.

The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) collections of imports duties and other taxes, net of tax refunds, last August climbed 36 percent year-on-year to P52 billion, such that its end-August haul of P383.5 billion was 35-percent larger than last year.

“The [BOC] attributes its consistent double digit growth for the year to the higher exchange rate, increased oil prices, proper valuation, strong enforcement and revenue-enhancing measures,” the Treasury said.

For 2018, the government had programmed a P523.7-billion budget deficit, equivalent to 3 percent of gross domestic product.