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WHILE tax collections fell short of target, the
Arroyo administration managed to generate higher nontax revenues in
the first semester, exceeding the target for the period as well as
last year’s performance.
Total nontax revenues in the
first six months of the year reached P78.3 billion, higher than the
P53.19 billion collected last year and the P74.9 billion programmed
for the same period this year.
The Bureau of Treasury generated
P34.2 billion, or P4.5 billion higher than the government target for
the first half.
Interest income on national
government deposits amounted to P2.3 billion while income from
investments reached P18.8 billion. Income from other government
sources stood at P6.6 billion.
Boosting the first-half nontax
revenue take was the successful sale of the government’s stake in
Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (PTIC) last January.
That transaction generated P25 billion.
The total privatization revenue
in the first semester stood at P26 billion, slightly higher than the
P25.2-billion target for the period.
Last year, the government raised
only P450 million from privatization proceeds.
Bank of the Philippine Islands
(BPI) said the government’s privatization program’s yield will
allow the Arroyo administration to meet its P63-billion budget
deficit target this year.
Adelberto Legasto, BPI executive
vice-president, said the government is likely to meet its full-year
fiscal deficit goal despite its failure to meet revenue targets in
the first half.
The government is eyeing to
generate $7.931 billion this year from the sale of its $6-billion
power sector assets.
“They’ll be able to meet it
not because the original revenue forecast but because of the
seemingly bullish market that we have paving the way for the
possibility of being able somehow to privatize some of the assets
they have,” Legasto told reporters.
“So, actually, there’s a
probability that the deficit will actually be narrower than what was
originally projected,” he said.
The government posted a
P41-billion budget deficit for the first half of the year,
overshooting by about P9 billion its P31.38 billion target for the
period due to weak collections by revenue agencies.
The Department of Finance said
the government will have to rely on its privatization program to
generate ample revenues and make up for the first-half tax slippage.
BPI however said the Philippine
economy would grow 6.4 percent this year, lower than the
government’s program as high as 6.7 percent this year.
The country’s second-biggest
lender also said that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will
again cut its interest rates this year due to easing inflation.
“I believe in certain
point in time they have to lower it,” Legasto said. The BSP last
week cut its overnight rates, citing the downtrend in inflation.
BPI foresees inflation to average
between 2.5 percent and 3 percent this year, within the BSP’s
forecast range of 2.6 percent to 3.1 percent.
--Angelo S. Samonte
and Maricel E. Burgonio
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