THE government’s budget shortfall narrowed to P28.8 billion in July amid increased revenue collections, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported on Wednesday.
At P28.8 billion, the budget deficit is lower than July 2023’s P47.8 billion and markedly lower than June’s P209.1 billion shortfall.
The improvement was attributed to the “faster revenue growth of 11.09 percent compared to a 5.80 percent increase in expenditures,” the Treasury said in a statement.
It said that June’s revenues of P457.4 billion were 11.09 percent higher than the year-earlier P411.7 billion collected due to higher tax collections.
Broken down, the Bureau of Internal Revenue accounted for the bulk at P319.8 billion, 17.09 percent higher than the year-earlier P273.1 billion.
The Bureau of Customs, meanwhile, saw July collections rise by 9.99 percent to P80.4 billion.
Other offices posted P2.7 billion in revenues for the month, unchanged from the figure a year earlier.
As for nontax revenues, Treasury collections significantly declined to P19.9 billion from P50.8 billion due to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ one-off remittance of P31.9 billion last year, as well as reduced income from BTr-managed funds and government deposits.
Other offices generated nontax revenues of P34.6 billion in July, more than double from P12.0 billion a year ago.
July’s spending, meanwhile, reached P486.2 billion, a 5.8-percent increase from last year’s P459.5 billion.
This rise was due to the higher National Tax Allotment share of local government units.
Primary expenditures accounted for P406.8 billion of July’s spending, up from P396.0 billion a year earlier.
Interest payments, which accounted for the rest of expenditures, rose to P79.4 billion from P63.6 billion in July last year.
Excluding interest payments, the national government recorded a primary surplus of P50.6 billion for July, a year-on-year increase from P15.7 billion.
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