|
By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE Philippines is unlikely to pursue a plan to
take on more commercial borrowings abroad in the second half this
year due to the slow pace of spending and forthcoming revenues, the
Bureau of Treasury said Thursday.
National Treasurer Roberto Tan said the
government may forego the additional $500 million to $750 million in
foreign borrowings as it saw no need for the additional liabilities
during the remaining months of the year.
Earlier, the government enjoyed a small budget
surplus last month due to curtailed capital spending.
“I think the nearer we come to the end of the
year before the start of the fourth quarter we get more certainty on
the revenue inflows from tax and non-tax [sources],” Tan told
reporters.
The government’s earlier plan of borrowing
money from offshore lenders could have helped lift the peso, which
has become the second worst performing currency in Asia.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves had said there
was a question on how to arrest the decline of the peso, which led
to the suggestion of undertaking another round of foreign borrowing.
Under its borrowing program this year, the
government is supposed to source $1.5 billion from foreign donors,
and $500 million through the sale of bonds or IOUs abroad.
The government already raised $500 million
through the sale of the said debt papers in January.
The country reported a lower-than-forecast
first-half budget deficit of P18 billion, on the back of an P800
million surplus in June. Under its fiscal program for the first six
months this year, the government was supposed to incur a P41-billion
deficit.
First-half revenues grew 11.7 percent to P570
billion, while spending rose 6.7 percent to P588 billion.
The government earlier abandoned its target of
balancing the budget this year, saying it would likely incur a
P45-billion to P70-billion deficit due to increased subsidies for
the poor amid rising food and fuel prices.
Teves said balancing the budget by next year
would require raising revenue collections to 15.5 percent of the
country’s economic output.
This would mean the primary tax agencies would
have to raise collections by “close to 20 percent per annum, and
basically that will be the tax revenues because we’re not
expecting too much from non-tax revenues or privatization,” he
said.
|
