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By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE Department of Finance said the
government’s first semester budget deficit remains on track amid
the positive performance of the two main revenue-generating
agencies.
Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said the
government may post a P40.96-billion funding gap, given the
improvements in revenue collections by the Bureaus of Internal
Revenue (BIR) and of Customs during the period.
Under the abandoned balanced-budget plan, the
government should end the first semester with a P40.96-billion
revenue gap.
“The programmed deficit will be attained, or
the deficit will be lower than program given these developments,”
Beltran told reporters.
The finance department is still using the
original quarterly fiscal program for the year, as it has yet to
come up with the revised budget program. The Arroyo administration
earlier postponed its zero budget gap goal this year to 2010, and
settled for a P75-billion deficit given plans to jack up spending.
Beltran said the BIR and Customs are likely to
exceed their targets due to skyrocketing oil and other commodity
prices and a weak local currency against the US dollar.
Initial estimates showed that an additional
P18.6 billion in revenues from the value added tax on oil will be
realized this year if the world price of crude averaged above $100
per barrel.
For every 1-percent increase in imports, Customs
gains P4 billion more in revenues. State-run National Food Authority
is rushing to buy more rice from abroad to increase its buffer stock
amid the tight supply in the world market.
At end-June, Customs collections reached P117.08
billion, surpas-sing the target for the period of P116.41 billion,
according to Deputy Commissioner Reynaldo Umali.
For the BIR, Beltran said initial reports showed
that the agency is generating enough revenues. At end-May, the
largest revenue contributor was in surplus by P13 billion.
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