DOF: February fiscal deficit at P11.749B

The government incurred an P11.749 billion fiscal deficit in February as expenditures surpassed revenue collections, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Wednesday. The government collected P112.348 billion in revenues against P124.097 billion worth of expenditures for the second month of the year, bringing the first two months deficit to P31.280 billion. Year-to-date revenues amounted to P250.716 billion while disbursements totaled P281.996 billion, the DOF said. Revenues improved by 2.1 percent from P245.543 billion while expenditures grew 12.4 percent from P250.831 billion on year. The DOF said netting out interest payments from expenditures, the government still ran a primary surplus worth P6.171 billion in February and P41.482 billion for the first two months. The Bureau of Internal Revenue, which accounted for 70 percent of state tax revenues, collected a total of P74.519 billion in February and a year-to-date collections of P169.237 billion. The Bureau of Customs that month collected P22.471 billion and P47.011 billion in the first two months. Collections of the Bureau of Treasury, on the other hand, went down by 65.4 percent to P6.962 billion from P20.135 billion on year given the timing difference in the remittance of dividends from government-owned and –controlled corporations. For the first two months, the treasury bureau's collections also declined 47.7 percent to P16.312 billion from P31.187 billion on year. Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima had earlier expressed confidence that the government will sustain the improvements in its revenue generation with its aggressive campaign to improve collections among self-employed, business and professionals.  — KBK, GMA News