Q1 budget gap 78% below target as ECQ halts gov’t spending

The budget deficit narrowed to P74 billion at the end of the first quarter as the national government spent less than the three-month expenditures program due to the COVID-19 lockdown imposed since mid-March, stopping the rollout of public projects in Luzon and other parts of the country.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data released Monday showed that the first-quarter budget deficit was not only 17.97-percent below the P90.2 billion a year ago but also 77.76-percent smaller than the P332.9 billion programmed for the period.

End-March expenditures rose 9.16 percent year-on-year to P849.2 billion, but actual government spending on public goods and services was 14.48-percent lower than the P993 billion that should have been spent.

In a statement, the Treasury attributed underspending during the first quarter to “delays in program implementation with the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and lower-than-programmed interest payments and net lending.”

While interest payments as of March rose 11.24 percent year-on-year to P119.9 billion, the amount was 13.61-percent below the P138.8-billion program.

However, the bigger impact was on so-called productive spending or operating expenditures, which amounted to P729.3 billion, 14.62-percent lower than the programmed P854.2 billion for the January-to-March period.—Ben O. de Vera INQ