Expenditures on public goods and services surged by more than a fifth in November such that the national government posted a wider budget deficit of P60.9 billion during the month.
However, the impact of government underspending due to late budget approval at the start of the year lingered on until end-November as the 11-month budget deficit narrowed by 14.3 percent to P409.1 billion from P477.2 billion during the same period last year.
The DBCC this month reduced the nominal budget-deficit cap to P610 billion from P624.4 billion previously, although the updated ceiling was still equivalent to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in line with the plan to ramp up spending, especially on infrastructure.
During the month of November alone, disbursements jumped 22.4 percent year-on-year to P365.6 billion, exceeding the P304.7 billion in tax and non-tax revenues, which rose 17.4 percent year-on-year, the Bureau of the Treasury’s latest cash operations report released Monday showed.
As such, the budget deficit in November widened by 55.6 percent from P39.1 billion a year ago.
Net of interest payments, government spending that month climbed by a faster 27.1 percent year-on-year to P348.3 billion.
The country’s two biggest tax-collection agencies also increased their November collections, with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BOC) posting a 20.8-percent year-on-year jump to P232.1 billion—its “best growth performance for the year” thus far, the Treasury said in the report.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) grew its net take of import duties and other taxes by 5.2 percent year-on-year to P50.4 billion.
From January to November, expenditures rose 6.7 percent year-on-year to P3.3 trillion, while total revenues grew at a faster 10.6 percent rate year-on-year to P2.89 trillion.
Excluding the 11-month interest payments, cumulative disbursements increased 7.1 percent to P2.97 trillion, boosted by the government’s “catch-up performance,” the Treasury said.
The “primary” deficit less interest payments stood at P77.4 billion at end-November, 50.8-percent narrower than the P157.2 billion last year, which the Treasury blamed on “general slowdown in non-interest spending, which occurred primarily in the first half of the year owing to the delayed passage of the budget, compounded by the election ban.”
The government underspent P1 billion a day between January and April as it operated using reenacted 2018 appropriations when Congress failed to pass the budget on time due to squabbles over alleged “pork” funds.
President Duterte signed the P3.7-trillion 2019 national budget only in mid-April.
The economic team undertook a “bold” spending catch-up plan under which major infrastructure agencies such as the departments of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and of Transportation (DOTr) would speed up implementation of P803-billion worth of projects until yearend.
As for revenues, the BIR breached the P2-trillion collections mark in end-November as the actual take of P2.01 trillion grew 11.8 percent year-on-year.
The BOC’s 11-month revenues increased 7.4 percent year-on-year to P578.1 billion.