MANILA — The Philippines posted a P66.8 billion budget surplus in April, higher than the P4.9 billion surplus in the same period last year, the Bureau of Treasury said on Monday.
This brought the cumulative deficit for the year lower by 34.7 percent at P204.1 billion compared to the first 4 months of 2022, the BTr said in a statement.
Government collections in April stood at P440.7 billion, up 26.7 percent, which brought the revenue for the January to April period to P1.3 trillion, growing 11.2 percent, the agency said.
A total of P1.1 trillion of the total collections or 89.18 percent were taxes, BTr said.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue's April collection grew 40.2 percent to P336 billion partly due to the implementation of Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 5-2023 in line with Section 37 of the TRAIN Law, requiring the filing of quarterly VAT returns within 25 days following the close of each taxable quarter, the BTr added.
The BIR's total collections as of the end of April reached P841.2 billion.
Collections of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), meanwhile, recorded a 2.9 percent growth to P67.6 billion, which brought its first 4 months of collection to P281.4 billion, data showed.
Meanwhile, BTr revenue reached P57.3 billion, down 23 percent. Its income declined 28.9 percent for the month to P18.3 billion, it said.
"The downturn for the month was mainly attributed to the base effect of early remittances of dividends from GOCCs last year," the BTr said.
In terms of expenditures, the national government disbursements for April grew 9 percent to P373.9 billion from P343 billion in the same month last year due to the subsidy release to PhilHealth, larger capital expenditures of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Transportation (DOTr) as well as higher interest payments, the BTr said.
Total expenditures for the first 4 months reached P1.5 trillion, 1.33 percent higher, the BTr said adding that primary expenditures for April accounted for 87.63 percent.
April interest payment reached P46.3 billion while total interest payment as of the end of April reached P188.2 billion, data showed.
The first quarter deficit was at 4.84 percent of GDP, the BTr said.
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