Government incurs P37.1-billion budget deficit in January

MANILA, Philippines - The government incurred a budget deficit of P37.1 billion in January, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves reported yesterday.

The January deficit is slightly lower than the P38.1 billion incurred in the same month last year but higher than the P26 billion recorded in December 2009.

Teves said revenue collections reached P92.3 billion for the month of January, reflecting a growth of 18 percent compared to the P78.5 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Of the total, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P64.6 billion while the Bureau of Customs brought in P17.6 billion or a growth of 17 percent and 22 percent, respectively, compared to the same month last year.

The Bureau of the Treasury’s income was recorded at P5.2 billion while collections from other offices amounted to P4.9 billion.

Despite the improvement in revenues, these were not enough to fund the necessary expenses during the month.

Total disbursements amounted to P129.4 billion or 11 percent higher than the P116.5 billion disbursed in the same period last year.

Teves expressed hopes that the government would be able to sustain the improved fiscal performance for the month of January throughout the year.

“We are pleased to have started the year with an improved fiscal performance. We hope to sustain this in the coming months with the continued vigorous implementation of the action plans of the BIR and BOC plus, hopefully, additional revenues from our privatization efforts,” Teves said.

For the month of February, fiscal authorities expect improvements in the collections of the BIR and the BOC.

The BIR is expected to have collected P48.3 billion in February, already above the target for the month of P48.2 billion. The BOC, for its part, has so far collected P17.6 billion in February, still below the target of P18.4 billion but officials said the final figures may still go up when payments from far-flung revenue district offices come in.

In the area of privatization, however, the government has yet to sell any of the three major big-ticket items it has been planning to sell for many years now. These include the P13-billion Food Terminals Inc. agro-industrial property in Taguig, the 10 percent participating stake of Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. in the Malampaya project, estimated at P14 to P15 billion and the long-term lease and development contract of the government’s real estate property in Fujimi, Japan for P3 billion.

The government has programmed to contain the deficit at P293 billion this year from P298.5 last year.