Tax take rising, cuts fiscal gap

The national government’s budget deficit declined in July by 39.67 percent to P28.8 billion compared to the level in the same month last year as government revenues increased faster, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported Wednesday.

Government revenues grew by 11.09 percent faster than expenditures’ 5.8 percent, resulting in only single-digit growth in budget deficit from January to July at 7.21 percent year-on-year.

Revenue collections in July amounted to P457 billion, mostly composed of 88.07 percent tax revenues while the non-tax accounted for 11.93 percent.

Tax revenues for that month grew by 15.46 percent, contributing to the cumulative P2.6 trillion in total revenue which was higher than last year’s P2.3 trillion.

BIR collections up 17%

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s collections jumped by 17.09 percent last month to P319.8 billion. “The growth was due to higher collections of value-added tax (VAT), income taxes, other domestic taxes, and percentage taxes,” BTr’s report said.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs saw nearly 10 percent growth in collections amounting to P80.4 billion.

The BTr said growth drivers included higher collections from VAT, import duties, and excise taxes, a stronger peso against the US dollar, and higher crude oil prices.

On its part, the BTr contributed P19.9 billion, down from its P50.8 billion income last year.

“This is due to one-off remittance of P31.9 billion from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last year, as well as reduced income from BTr-managed funds and National Government’s deposits,” BTr said.

In terms of expenditures in July, the national government disbursed P486.2 billion, up by 5.8 percent due to higher allotments to local government units.

As a result, expenditures in the first seven months grew by 13.17 percent to P3.2 trillion.

Primary expenditures which exclude interest payments last month rose by 2.73 percent to P406.8 billion.