DOF: Deficit to stay within P325-B ceiling

While it needs money to operate the government, the cash-strapped Aquino administration will still manage to keep the 2010 budget deficit within the P325-billion ceiling, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Monday. “I’m on target at P325 billion," Purisima told reporters after a Senate hearing on the fat perks of executives working in government-owned and -controlled corporations. He said government revenues usually rise in the remaining months of the year together with Christmas spending. The government would ensure that it will keep its spending in check during the rest of the year to avoid breaching the deficit ceiling, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said. For the last three months of 2010, the government coffers have P294.4 billion for the Aquino administration to spend, or about P98 billion a month, he added. The deficit in the first nine months of the year widened to P259.8 billion from P237.5 billion due to lower-than-programmed revenues. The government has a programmed deficit ceiling of P273.7 billion in January-September. In September alone, the shortfall widened to P31.7 billion from P27.5 billion a year earlier. Total revenues in the first nine months amounted to P894.7 billion, or 6.5 percent higher than the P839.8 billion recorded a year earlier. Revenues in September alone hit P91.9 billion, an 8.7-percent drop from P100.7 billion a year ago. The Bureau of Internal Revenue — the primary revenue agency — fell short by P13.2 billion of its P620.5-billion revenue target in the first nine months, despite having collected P607.3 billion. The Bureau of Customs collected P191 billion in January-September, or 19.2 percent lower than its P210.2-billion target for the period. Income made by the Bureau of Treasury totaled P45.5 billion in nine months to September, down by 12.8 percent from what it made in the same period last year. Revenues from other offices also fell year-on-year to P50.9 billion from P65.1 billion in the first nine months. Expenditures totaled P1.154 trillion in January-September, or 7.2 percent higher than the P1.077 trillion spent in the 2009 comparable period. Expenditures in September amounted to P123.6 billion, down by 3.6-percent from P128.2 billion a year earlier. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV