NG may generate P70-B budget surplus this year

The government would generate a budget surplus of at least P70 billion should Congress fail again to pass the 2007 budget and force another year under the reenacted 2005 budget.

The surplus, however, is not expected to be taken well by investors since the equivalent cutback in public spending would translate to a possible slowdown in growth unless the private sector is able to pick up the slack.

Preliminary estimates indicate that against the projected 2007 revenues of P1.12 trillion, the P963.15-billion 2005 budget would yield a surplus of at least P70 billion.

The estimate factors in the amount automatically appropriated for interest expense and internal revenue allotment for local government units.

These two items need not be legislated under the yearly General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The Department of Finance (DOF) said it has not made any official estimates on what the end-2007 fiscal position would look like but Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran admitted that a surplus is likely if the 2005 budget is reenacted for the whole of 2007.

In 2006, the government actually generated P4 billion from the sale of its assets against the target of P500 million. This did not include the P26 billion that it generated from the sale of its shares in the Philippine Telecommunications Investments Corp. (PTIC) which holds interests in Philippine Long Distance and Telecommunications Co.

"There are creative ways that the budget department could work around a reenacted budget because there are flexibilities that are built into the line items," Beltran said. "But of course at the end of the year, the ceiling would not change."