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WHILE
public spending was deliberately ramped up in December
last year by some P16 billion, the government still
ended with a budget deficit for the year of P53.6
billion, lower than the target of P63 billion.
The
increased spending continues to be poured into
infrastructure programs this year as a means of
shielding the economy from possible recession overspill
from the
United States,
where most businessmen believe it is now a reality while
the government of President Bush continues to hedge.
“This
was the lowest since 1998 and represented 0.1 percent of
the gross domestic product versus the target of 0.9
percent of GDP at a P63-billion deficit,” said Finance
Secretary Margarito Teves on Monday. The budget deficit
in 1998 was P50 billion.
Overall
revenues, driven largely by proceeds from privatization,
exceeded the goal by P15.9 billion. Asset-sale proceeds
last year totaled P90.6 billion, the proceeds from the
sale of government equity stake in Meralco having been
booked under the current fiscal year.
“We
could have brought lower still the budget deficit, had
we not spent the way we did in the final months. But we
considered it prudent to spend anyway,” said Teves.
Tax and
nontax revenues for the period went up by 15.8 percent
to P1.135 trillion versus year-ago of P979.6 billion.
Total
expenditures still grew by 9.5 percent to P1.144
trillion, from P1.044 trillion in 2006.
A
lower-than-anticipated interest rate regime allowed
government to save P6.5 billion on interest expense
since actual interest payments stood at P266.8 billion
versus program of P303.3 billion. “Net of interest
expense, expenditures for the year reached P877.2
billion, or 19.5 percent higher than the previous year’s
total of P734.3.”
Both the
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of
Customs (BOC) failed to meet their respective collection
goals for the year.
But even
then BIR collection improved by 9 percent to P711.6
billion—still P54.3-billion short of P765.9
billion-target while the BOC collected P210.5 billion,
or P17.7-billion short of the P228.2-billion target.
Total
revenues from other offices, including privatization,
amounted to P144.7 billion, or more than double the
P71.2-billion target and 166.5 percent over the previous
year’s total of P54.3 billion. |
