PH budget deficit narrows in July

Bureau of the Treasury

The government posted a budget deficit of P28.8 billion in July, down by 39.67 percent from the P47.8 billion shortfall last year, data released on Wednesday by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.

For the first seven months, the budget deficit increased by 7.21 percent to P642.8 billion from the level a year ago.

A budget deficit happens when the state’s expenses exceed its revenue.

READ: Gov’t reduced budget deficit in June

In July, state expenditures jumped by 5.80 percent to P486.2 billion from P459.5 billion a year ago.

The BTr said this was due to the higher National Tax Allotment – or the share given by the national government to local government units out of the take from all national taxes.

Since the start of the year, the expenditure went up by 13.17 percent to P3.24 trillion, from last year’s P2.87 trillion.

Meanwhile, revenues from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which historically accounts for 80 percent of state revenues, grew by 17.09 percent to P319.8 billion in July.

This brought its year-to-date collection to P1.68 trillion, up by 12.70 percent from last year. The BIR aims to collect P3.05 trillion for the full year.

“The year-on-year growth was due to higher collections of Value-Added Tax (VAT), income taxes, other domestic taxes, and percentage taxes. The growth in VAT collection was partly attributed to base effects as collections last year were lower by around two months’ worth of VAT collection with the shift from monthly to quarterly filing of VAT payments as mandated by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law,” the report said.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected P80.4 billion in July, up 9.99 percent from a year ago.

For the first seven months, its collections rose by 5.80 percent to P535.9 billion.

The growth in BOC revenue can be attributed to greater collections from VAT, import duties, and excise taxes. This favorable revenue performance was further bolstered by the depreciation of the peso, increased value and volume of imports, and higher international crude oil prices compared to the same period last year.