The government’s budget position swung to a surplus in May, further narrowing the five-month deficit as the delayed implementation of this year’s appropriations took its toll on public expenditure.
The latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed that the government had posted a P2.6-billion surplus in May, the third month this year that the amount of revenue collected exceeded spending on public goods and services.
May’s surplus reversed the P32.9-billion deficit a year ago.
Tax and nontax revenues in May reached P317.2 billion, up 22.5 percent year-on-year, thanks to “improved collections by major revenue-generating agencies,” the Treasury said.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue saw its tax take in May jump 19.1 percent year-on-year to P204.8 billion, which the Treasury said was the fastest monthly growth rate registered by the country’s biggest tax-collection agency so far this year.
The Bureau of Customs’ collections of import duties and other taxes rose 10.3 percent to P58.2 billion that month.
Nontax revenues generated by the Treasury climbed 61.3 percent to P51.8 billion, which it attributed to “higher dividends on shares of stocks” that rose 89.5 percent year-on-year to P30.8 billion, of which P16.2 billion or over half came from state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
Meanwhile, disbursements in May hit P314.7 billion, up 7.8 percent year-on-year but below that month’s revenue.
The increase in expenditures in May was attributed by the Treasury to “the last tranche of salary increase of government personnel, release of midyear bonus and the execution of new programs in line with the approval of the 2019 GAA [General Appropriations Act] in mid April.”
Net of interest payments, primary expenditures grew by 9 percent to P295 billion.
President Duterte signed the P3.7-trillion 2019 national budget on April 15 or more than four months late as the two houses of Congress squabbled over “pork” funds, such that the government operated under reenacted 2018 appropriations at the start of the year and underspent about P1 billion a day.
From January to May, the budget deficit narrowed by 99.4 percent to only P809 million from P138.7 billion in the first five months of last year.
End-May expenditures declined 0.8 percent year-on-year to P1.315 trillion, while disbursements not including interest payments dropped by a faster 1.7 percent to P1.164 billion.
Due to underspending at the start of the year, gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell to a four-year low of 5.6 percent in the first quarter, below the government’s downgraded 6-7 percent full-year target range.
Total revenue as of May rose 10.7 percent to P1.313 trillion.
The BIR’s and BOC’s end-May tax collections rose 9.8 percent year-on-year to P908.5 billion and P251.7 billion, respectively.
The Treasury’s revenues from January to May reached P77 billion, up 31.9 percent and already surpassed the full-year goal of P73.9 billion.
For 2019, the government had programmed a budget deficit ceiling of P624.4 billion—or 3.2 percent of GDP, in line with plans to roll out more big-ticket infrastructure projects.