Gov’t confident of hitting budget deficit target

The government has boosted its chances of meeting its P202-billion fiscal deficit target for the year after its collecting agencies reported positive gains last month.

Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin said government was well within the 2003 fiscal deficit targets due mainly to tightened spending and improved revenue collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Boncodin likewise said that unlike last year, the Department of Budget and Gov’t confident Management (DBM) will not frontload expenditures in the first half of the coming year.

"It is not business as usual next year. And we must continue the fiscal discipline we started this year," she said during a forum sponsored by the Philippine Economic Society (PES) where she is incumbent president.

Part of Boncodin’s optimism is anchored on improved revenue ratio efficiency, which was placed at roughly 15 percent although this was targeted at a comfortable 17 percent.

The BIR maintained an average revenue ratio efficiency of over 10-percent month-on-month, which accounted for its successful collection for the month of November.

Finance Undersecretary and officer-in-charge (OIC) Juanita Amatong had earlier expressed optimism that full- year fiscal targets could be met. In fact, Amatong was looking at a figure of P200 billion, or P2 billion less than target.

Amatong based her forecast on the positive reports of the BIR and the BOC for the month of November.

The BIR’s reported collections reached P42.25.billion or 2.3 percent better than original monthly targets. However, BIR commissioner Guillermo Parayno admitted that its 11-month collection figure was still short of the target P388.584 billion.