PH budget surplus ballooned in April

MANILA -The national government’s budget surplus in the tax filing month of April ballooned to P66.8 billion from P4.9 billion in the same month of 2022 as the growth in revenues outran that of spending.

Data at the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) show that the latest monthly readout—along with a surplus registered in January—helped narrow the January-April deficit by 35 percent to P204.1 billion from P311.9 billion.

In April alone, revenues surged by 27 percent to P440.7 billion while four-month receipts jumped by 11 percent to P1.3 trillion.

Also, expenses grew by 9 percent to P373.9 billion while four-month disbursements grew slightly by 1.2 percent to P1.5 trillion.

Spending

In a statement, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) urged government agencies to further ramp up their budget disbursement and spending.

According to the DBM, the agencies used 90 percent of their budgets from January to April, representing P1.175 trillion of budget funds already released.

“The faster we disburse and utilize our funds, the faster we can procure and implement our projects,” Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said. “That’s why we want to remind our agencies to avoid underspending, given our very limited fiscal space.”

The BTr said that in April, tax revenues alone—which accounted for 90 percent of total—grew by 12 percent to P1.1 trillion. Nontax revenues increased by 7 percent to P136.3 billion.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) contributed P336 billion, rising 40 percent from P239.6 billion in the same month a year ago.

This was attributed to the implementation of a circular that requires the filing of Quarterly VAT Returns within 25 days following the close of each taxable quarter wherein the transaction was recorded.

For the four months to April, t’s he BIR total collections reached P841.2 billion, an increase of 13 percent from P742 billion.

Also, the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) collections grew by 3 percent to P67.6 billion from P65.7 billion.
Four-month BOC intake jumped by 11 percent to P281.4 billion from P254.2 billion.

In April, the increase in spending was mainly due to the subsidy release to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., larger capital expenditures of the Department of Public Works and Highways and Department of Transportation, and higher interest payments for the month.

The BTr said spending growth in April was tempered by the decrease in transfers to local governments due to lower National Tax Allotment shares. INQ