Budget posts surplus in April, first time in two years

MANILA, Philippines — The national government finally recorded a budget surplus in April this year as the tax season translated to higher collections for both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), according to the Bureau of the Treasury.

The Treasury reported that the government’s fiscal position yielded a surplus of P4.94 billion in April, as revenues grew faster than expenditures, reversing the P44.43 billion deficit recorded in the same month last year.

The government booked a surplus for the first time in almost two years or since June 2020 when it delivered a surplus of P1.77 billion.

The Treasury reported a 19 percent rise in revenues to P347.95 billion in April from P291.92 billion in the same month last year. Tax revenues increased by 13 percent to P306.9 billion from P271.71 billion, while non-tax revenues more than doubled to P41.1 billion from P20.2 billion.

In April, the tax take of the BIR inched up by 9.4 percent to P239.6 billion from P219 billion, while the collection of the BOC jumped by 26.8 percent to P65.7 billion from P51.8 billion.

During the month, the Treasury nearly tripled its earnings to P25.7 billion from P9 billion in the same month last year as it gained dividends from bond sinking fund investments and state-run firms, particularly from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

On the other hand, government spending climbed by only two percent to P343.01 billion from P336.36 billion as state disbursements grew by five percent to P208 billion, while allotment for localities shrank by seven percent to P85.51 billion as local governments no longer had to distribute social amelioration.

According to the Treasury, the strong performance in April helped the government trim the budget shortfall by 14.7 percent to P311.91 billion in the first four months of the year from P365.9 billion in the same period last year.

For the first quarter of the year, the bureau said the government’s budget deficit as a ratio of the gross domestic product (GDP) improved to 6.43 percent from 7.35 percent in the same period last year when the country incurred additional spending for its COVID-19 pandemic response measures.

In 2021, the government’s budget deficit swelled by 22 percent to a record P1.67 trillion in 2021 from P1.37 trillion in 2020 as higher state spending, including COVID-19 response measures, outpaced the recovery in revenue efforts.

For this year, the government aims to trim the deficit to 7.7 percent of GDP and further to 6.1 percent in 2023, 5.1 percent in 2024 and 4.1 percent in 2025.