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Revenue
gains the past eight months allowed the government to
trim down the budget deficit to only P25.5 billion,
sharply improved from last year’s P39.4 billion, Finance
Secretary Margarito Teves said on Tuesday.
In
August alone, there was a surplus of P13.9 billion, or 3
percent higher than surplus of just P14.3 billion last
year. This was the third month in a series that the
national government was able to post a surplus.
While
Teves targeted a budget surplus of P15.4 billion for
August, he said the lower-than-expected actual number
should not change the quarterly deficit goal of P193.6
billion.
He
reported greater efficiency in generating revenues that
contributed to the narrowing of the deficit.
Revenues
in August alone grew by 20.1 percent to P117.1 billion
from last year’s P97.5 billion.
Expenditures during the month totaled P103.2 billion, or
24.1 percent higher than year ago of only P83.2 billion.
These
developments pushed higher by 14 percent the
January-to-August revenues to P731.4 billion from P642.2
billion even though expenditures for the period also
accelerated by 12 percent to P756.9 billion from P676.4
billion.
As a
result, the cumulative revenue shortfall of the Bureau
of Internal Revenue thinned to just P25 billion in
August from P47.7 billion in July.
During
the same period the Bureau of Customs also reduced its
cumulative collection shortfall to only P12.1 billion,
according to Teves.
He
brushed aside comments from the UK-based Fitch Ratings
citing the nonsustainable nature of fiscal gains the
government achieved thus far that should also not likely
result in an upgrade of its basic credit rating and its
outlook as well.
“We
still have to work very hard on our tax revenue
performance and that is actually our focus. We have to
ensure we have the funds to underwrite our expenditure
program and live within the target deficit of P63
billion this year,” Teves said.
He also
said the country’s low investment-to-output ratio, which
was pointed out by Fitch Ratings at its latest reading
of the Philippine economy, was the result of relatively
high debt load inherited from previous administrations.
“We
actually came from a very large stock of debt and we
cannot just compare ourselves with countries who have
better fiscal sectors,” Teves humbly said. |
