Gov't revenue effort improves

Philstar – 15 hours ago

MANILA, Philippines - The government’s revenue effort improved to 14.7 percent as of end-September, higher than the 14.5 percent recorded in the same period last year, latest data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed.

The revenue effort is the measure of the government’s ability to collect revenues that are commensurate with the growth of the economy. It is an indicator of how well the government is doing in terms of revenue collection, relative to what could be expected given the economy’s potential.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the Aquino administration’s prudent fiscal management has maintained ample fiscal space to spend for inclusive growth, maintaining a deficit-to-GDP ratio at 1.4 percent or well within the 2.6 percent full-year program.
Similarly, the government’s tax effort also increased to 13.1 percent as of end-September, higher than the 12.7 percent recorded a year ago.
Purisima said this is mainly due to the strong performance of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government’s main revenue agency. “This is driven by the 0.4 percent improvement in the BIR’s revenue-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, now at 10.2 percent.”
The full year revenue and tax efforts are expected to continue to improve as both the BIR and the Bureau of Customs register improvements in their collection efforts.
This year, the government is eyeing a budget deficit ceiling of P279 billion or 2.6 percent of GDP.
Latest data showed the government incurred a budget deficit of P9.674 billion in October, bringing the end-October budget deficit to P115.736 billion.
The end-October budget gap is still way below the full-year deficit ceiling for the year of P279 billion.
Revenues raised in October improved to P134.320 billion or 29.2 percent higher than the P103.939 billion recorded a year ago.
“The government collected P134.320 billion in October, soaring 29.2 percent from the last year and bringing the 10-month aggregate revenue to P1.253 trillion. This is the second highest monthly growth for the year,” Purisima said.
Expenditures in October also rose by 15 percent to P143.994 billion from P125.196 billion disbursed a year ago.
In January to October, the government’s revenues increased by 11.8 percent to P1.253 trillion from P1.121 trillion a year ago.
Expenditures also improved to P1.369 trillion or 14.5 percent more than the P1.195 trillion disbursed a year ago. - By Iris C. Gonzales (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)