The Bureau of Customs similarly grew its October collection by 3.04 percent to P57.7 billion year-on-year.

While the country’s fiscal position remains in deficit for the month of October, this was actually an improvement over last year’s figures, latest data from the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) show.

“The National Government’s (NG) posted a narrower budget deficit of P49.3 billion in October as growth in revenue generation outpaced expenditures,” the BTr said.

“The budget gap for the month was 17.71 percent lower than last year’s outturn, leading to a year-to-date budget deficit of P348.3 billion, which also declined by 20.51 percent year-over-year,” it added.

NG expenditures for the month of October was stronger at P310.8 billion versus the P306.6 billion registered in the same month year-ago.

According to the Treasury, the increase was owed to the sizeable base effect last year.

“Year-to-date, disbursements reached P2,937.7 billion, increasing by 5.05 percent or P141.3 billion year-on-year,” the BTr said.

“Total interest payments (IP) for October was at P20.7 billion, down by 13.70 percent year-on-year. The decrease was primarily due to a high base effect from October 2018 IP as well as the premium from the re-issued bonds series,” it added.

Meanwhile, year-to-date IP reaching P314.5 billion is higher by 6.47 percent versus the posted P295.3 billion in the same period last year driven by new issues in 2018 and 2019.

“As a percentage of revenue and expenditures, IP from January to October 2019 accounted for 12.14 percent and 10.70 percent compared to previous year levels of 12.52 percent and 10.56 percent, respectively,” it said.

NG revenues for the January to October period showed a 9.80 percent expansion to P2.58 trillion from just P2.35 trillion in the first 10 months of 2018. The bulk of NG revenues came from tax collections, which took the lion share of 90.79 percent while non-tax sources accounted for the remaining 9.21 percent.

“The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raised P178.1 billion1 for the month, posting an 8.09 percent increase over last year’s outcome. This enabled the BIR to realize a year-on-year growth of 10.68 percent or P171.9 billion for the 10-month period of 2019,” the Treasury said.

“The Bureau of Customs similarly grew its October collection by 3.04 percent to P57.7 billion year-on-year. The aggregate total of P527.7 billion as of end-Oct 2019 rose as well by 7.57 percent from the P490.6 billion recorded in the first 10 months of 2018,” it added.

Likewise, the BTr bared a 26.77 percent improvement for the month fueled by higher income from NG deposits, NG share from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. income and dividends on NG shares of stocks on government owned and controlled corporations.

The government is targeting a budget deficit of P624.4 billion for 2019, which translates to 3.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.