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By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE national government earned more last month
not because it spent less but that tax collection had been robust,
the Department of Finance said Wednesday.
The budget surplus in May was up by P7 billion,
five-fold higher than the P1.7-billion deficit in the same period
last year and slashing the first four-month deficit to P 18.8
billion.
“The May surplus is the highest on record for
the month due to largely sustained improvement in tax collection,”
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves told reporters.
Total revenue in May amounted to P106.9 billion,
higher by 13.5 percent than P94.1 billion last year, while
expenditures reached P99.8 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent over
P95.9 billion in the same period last year.
In May, collection of the Bureau of Internal
Revenue (BIR) went up 16.5 percent to P77.7 billion and that of the
Bureau of Customs (BOC) to P21.5 billion, an increase of 22.8
percent.
Income of the Bureau of Treasury (BTr),
meanwhile, dropped by 42.5 percent to P3.5 billion from last
year’s P6.1 billion; other offices contributed P4.1 billion, up
from P3.8 billion.
“The decline in BTr collection is due largely
to lower dividends from [government and controlled corporations] and
declining yields on investment securities,” Teves said.
Total revenue for this year is programmed to
reach P1.2 trillion following the plan of government to end the year
with P40-billion to P75-billion deficit.
In January to May, total revenues amounted to
P482.4 billion, higher by 11.5 percent from last year’s P432.6
billion. Collection of the BIR during the period, meanwhile, grew
17.5 percent to P335.7 billion, while the BOC revenues improved 22.9
percent to P92.1 billion.
Total BTr income in the first five months
reached P25.3 billion, up 2.1 percent year on year. Other offices,
including PSALM, however, experienced a 38-percent drop in income to
P29.3 billion from the previous year due largely to lower
privatization proceeds.
At end-May expenditure amoun-ted to P501.2
billion, higher by 5.7 percent from P474.4 billion.
Teves also said the government will continue to
increase spending in the remaining months of the year, as it plans
to sell more assets. The official said the finance department
expects that state shareholding in Petron Corp. will be sold before
November this year.
He added the government wants to get the
“premium” price for its stake in Petron.
“The trigger is the approval, we hope to get
the formal approval by July. After July, then the process will
continue until we able to disposed the shares,” Teves said.
He added Petron would come earlier than PNOC-EC.
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