Increased tax collection last year narrowed the government’s budget deficit to P1.512 trillion from P1.614 trillion in 2022, albeit slightly wider than the P1.499 trillion deficit target for the year.
The 2023 budget deficit was equal to 6.2 percent of gross domestic product, slightly off target but lower than the 7.3 percent deficit-to-GDP ratio recorded in 2022, indicating progress of fiscal consolidation. Er al
For December alone, the budget deficit for increased by 5.97 percent to P401.0 billion on the back of a 2.24 percent increase in spending and a 3.03 percent decline in revenue collections.
Total revenue last year was P3.824 trillion, up by 7.9 percent on improvements in both tax and non-tax revenue during the period. The outturn exceeded the P3.729 trillion program by P95.1 billion, driven primarily by over performance of non-tax collections.
Tax collection, mainly from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs, was up 6.5 percent to P3.429 trillion. Non-tax sources, primarily the Bureau of the Treasury, accounted for the remaining P394.8 billion, more than double the target for 2022.
Meanwhile, NG collection for December amounting to P260.1 billion slipped by P8.1 billion from the year-earlier period.
BIR collection last year reached P2.517 trillion, up 7.8 percent year-on-year but off the P2.639 trillion target due largely to change in schedule of value-added tax remittance, shrinking December collection.
Full-year collections by the BOC were registered at P883.2 billion, net of P4.2 billion tax refund. Customs collection was up by P20.8 billion from the P862.4 billion collection in 2022.
Total expenditures last year increased 3.4 percent to P5.336 trillion.
Revenue effort dipped to 15.7 percent of GDP last year from 16.1 percent in 2022 last year but was better than the 15.2 percent program. Tax effort also dropped to 14.1 percent of GDP from 14.6 percent a year ago and was below the 14.4 percent target. Total expenditure was at 22 percent of GDP, surpassing the 21.3 percent implicit target but lower than the 23.4 percent attained in 2022 in line with the NG’s fiscal consolidation efforts.
