Budget gap slightly down to P37.1B in January

The government’s budget deficit slightly declined to P37.1 billion in January from a year earlier after revenue agencies improved collections by almost a fifth, the Department of Finance said on Thursday. The budget gap was 2 percent lower than P38.1 billion posted a year earlier. Revenue collections grew by almost a fifth to P92.3 billion, while spending went up by 4 percent to P129.4 billion. “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 Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs plus, hopefully, additional revenues from our privatization efforts," Finance Secretary Gary Teves said in a statement. Internal Revenue bureau collections went up by 17 percent to P64.6 billion, while Customs collected 22 percent more at P17.6 billion, the Finance department said. The Treasury bureau, meanwhile, collected P5.2 billion. Revenues of other offices reached P4.9 billion. The Philippines has had difficulty raising tax revenues due to widespread evasion, corruption and weak implementation of tax laws, leading to a record budget deficit last year as collections failed to keep pace with spending to stimulate the economy amid the global downturn. The government incurred a shortfall of P298.5 billion last year, equivalent to 3.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), due to poor revenues and state failure to sell big-ticket assets. The figure was slightly over its worst-case estimate of P298 billion and way over the year’s cap of P250 billion. The target this year is P293 billion, or roughly 3.5 percent of economic output, as the government tries to improve tax collections amid the recovering economy. — NPA, GMANews.TV