PH gov’t fiscal balance posts P88B surplus in January

THE Philippine government’s fiscal balance stood at a surplus in the first month of 2024, thanks to higher state collections, which exceeded the growth in expenditures.

Data released by the Bureau of the Treasury ( BTr) on Saturday, February 16, showed the national government yielded a budget surplus of P88 billion in January, up 92.25% from a surplus of P45.7 billion in the same month in 2023.

“The fiscal outturn was brought about by a faster 21.15% year-over-year increase in revenue collection outpacing the 10.39% expansion in government spending,” the Treasury said.

In particular, state collections during the period amounted to P421.8 billion, up 21.15% from P348.2 billion year-on-year.

The higher government revenues seen in January were driven by higher tax collections, which accounted for the bulk, or 91.31%, representing P385.2 billion, of the total collections.

The remaining 8.69%, or P36.6 billion, came from nontax sources.

The lion’s share of tax collections came from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which raised a total of P308.4 billion, up 31.35% from P234.8 billion year-on-year.

“The improvement for the period was largely driven by the shift in VAT [value-added tax] remittance from monthly to quarterly, pushing the crediting of fourth quarter 2023 collections over to January 2024,” the BTr said.

The Bureau of Customs, meanwhile, collected P73.4 billion, up 3.98% from P70.6 billion in the same month in 2023.

“The i ncrease can be attributed to the agency’s improved system of determining the customs value of imported goods, strengthened border protection, and concrete trade facilitation efforts,” the Treasury said.

Income generated by the BTr declined to P16.7 billion from P17.8 billion last year “due to lower income from interest on NG deposits and investments. However, this was partially offset by the higher national government share of PAGCOR income.”

Collection from other offices — non- tax revenues from privatization proceeds, fees, and charges — totaled P19.9 billion, down 11.02% from a year earlier.

On t he other hand, government spending i n January stood at P333.9 billion, up 10.39% from P302.4 billion year-on-year.

The Treasury said primary expenditures, which accounted for 77.77% of the total spending, increased to P259.6 billion from P255.4 billion year-on-year.

Interest payments (IP), which accounted for the remaining 22.23%, rose to P74.2 billion.

“The 58.02%, or P27.3 billion, year-on-year increment in IP was due to the net effect of premia from last year’s reissuance of Treasury Bonds and from Global Bonds issued in the same period,” the BTr said.

“As a percentage of revenue and expenditures, IP for January increased to 17.60% and 22.23% compared to previous year levels of 13.49% and 15.53%, respectively,” it said.