Budget deficit widens to P378.2B

Faster-than-programmed spen-ding on public goods and services widened the national government’s budget deficit to P378.2 billion as of September.

The end-September fiscal deficit was 78-percent bigger than the P213.1 billion posted in the first nine months of last year, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data released Monday showed.

From January to September, the government spent P2.489 trillion, 3-percent higher than the P2.427-trillion program for the nine-month period.

Actual end-September expenditures also jumped 24 percent from P2.015 trillion a year ago.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno earlier explained that the government cannot “overspend” even as it was exceeding its expenditure program, which he said was a result of front-loading some projects in the pipeline.

The tax and non-tax revenues collected by the government during the first nine months of P2.112 trillion also surpassed the P2.031-trillion program.

Compared to last year, the end-September revenue take climbed 17 percent from P1.802 trillion last year.

Even as both expenditures and revenues rose year-to-date, the nine-month fiscal deficit remained 5-percent narrower than the programmed P396.6 billion.

The end-September deficit already accounted for 72 percent of the full-year program of P523.7 billion, the Treasury said in a statement.

In September alone, the budget deficit of P96.2 billion was 161-percent wider than the P36.9 billion recorded a year ago, attributed by the Treasury to “strong spending performance outpacing revenue growth.”

Last month, expenditures amounted P298.6 billion, up 26 percent year-on-year, while total revenues inched up only 1 percent to P202.4 billion.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s tax take last September declined by 8 percent year-on-year to P130.6 billion, which the Treasury blamed on the “high-base effect of the P17.6-billion partial settlement from Mighty Corp. collected last year.”