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By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE government’s end-February
outstanding debt dipped year on year due to the peso’s
appreciation against the dollar, the Bureau of Treasury said
Wednesday.
Data from the bureau showed that
in the first two months of the year obligations stood at P3.771
trillion, or 3.2 percent lower than the P3.896 trillion outstanding
in the same two-month period last year.
The end-February debt level
was 1 percent higher than the P3.732 trillion outstanding the month
before.
Of the total debt outstanding,
P2.250 trillion was owed to domestic creditors, while the remaining
P1.520 trillion was due foreigners.
A 1-percent increase in the
foreign component to P16 billion from the previous month was due to
the P17-billion net availments, and P6-billion depreciation of third
currencies against the dollar.
“However, this was partially
offset by the P7-billion appreciation of the peso against the
dollar,” the government said.
The government’s contingent
debt, composed of guarantees issued to state-run firms and other
public agencies, rose to P495 billion, higher by P8 billion from
last January’s P487 billion.
Foreign commercial borrowing
to resume
The Department of Finance said
the government will resume its foreign commercial borrowing, after
the treasury bureau encountered difficulties tapping the domestic
market due to high lending rates.
“We’re open to foreign market
borrowings [but] we have to consider [the] timing as well. Because
project loans may take a longer period than commercial loans or
program loans,” Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves told
reporters.
“Again it depends on
market opportunities, interest rates and other timing
considerations,” he said.
He said the Finance department,
the treasury bureau and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will
convene to assess market conditions.
“It depends also in the
cash position of the [treasury]. You have to make [a] quick decision
and just make sure that you are very rational and prudent in that
decision. They have to consider inflows coming from the domestic
resources, taxation [and], revenue collection,” Teves said.
Commissioner Lilian B. Hefti of
the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said the agency, which accounts
for at least 80 percent of government revenues, surpassed its
collection goal last month.
She said the bureau collected
over P91 billion as of Tuesday, exceeding the original target of P85
billion.
On the sidelines of an SGV &
Co. forum, Hefti told reporters that the agency already increased
the target due to “very good” collections.
She said the April preliminary
figure is 20 percent higher than the P75-billion collected last
year.
For May, the BIR is eyeing a
16-percent to 17-percent growth year on year, she added.
With a full year goal of P844.95
billion, the BIR has to collect at least P70.41 billion a month.
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