Budget gap for ’17 may fall below target on rise of revenues

FILE: Sec Benjamin Diokno (Photo By Axelchard13, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA —  Economic managers predict that the PHP482.1 billion budget deficit ceiling for 2017 may not be achieved partly because of sustained improvement in revenue collections.

Data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) Thursday showed that revenues as of end-October this year rose by 10 percent year-on-year to PHP2.006 trillion.

For the month of October alone, revenues amounted to PHP205.1 billion, 17 percent jump against year-ago’s PHP174.6 billion.

Expenditures during the 10-month period also expanded by 10 percent to PHP2.241 trillion as the government ramp up investments in infrastructure in line with its Build, Build, Build program, under which at least PHP8 trillion is programmed to be spent for roads, bridges and other infrastructure until 2022.

In the first 10 months this year, deficit rose by nine percent to PHP234.9 billion against year-ago’s PHP216 billion.

Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the budget deficit to date is around half of the full-year target but he expects this to rise further since the government still had a lot to purchase in the last two months of the year.

Among these purchases is the planned acquisition of 24 helicopters, he said.

Additional expenses for the remaining months of the year include the disbursement of state  workers year-end bonus and payments for government contractors, he said.

“With two months to go before the end of fiscal year we are hoping that actual deficit would be closer to target deficit,” he said.

Diokno is, however, optimistic that the three percent budget gap goal is attainable in 2018 as more infrastructure projects are scheduled to be implemented.

Relatively, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said a below-target deficit this year is not an issue.

“I dont think it’s going to be by very much,” he added. (PNA)