Budget surplus of national gov’t climbed 13 times to P66.8b in April

By Julito G. Rada

THE national government posted a budget surplus of P66.8 billion in April, or more than 13 times the P4.9 billion registered a year ago as the faster revenue collection outpaced the growth in expenditures, the Bureau of the Treasury said Monday.

Data showed the April surplus brought down the budget deficit in the first four months to P204.1 billion.

This was 34.57 percent lower than the P311.9-billion shortfall in the same period last year.

Government revenue collections jumped 26.6 percent in April to P440.7 billion from P347.9 billion a year earlier, bringing the year-to-date collections to P1.3 trillion, or 11.22 percent higher than a year ago.

Taxes amounted to P1.1 trillion and made up 89.18 percent of total collections in the four-month period, while non-tax sources contributed 10.82 percent or P136.3 billion. Tax and non-tax revenues both posted year-on-year increases of 11.78 percent and 6.86 percent, respectively.

Collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue climbed 40.24 percent or P96.4 billion in April to P336.0 billion from the level posted in the same month last year.

“Growth for the period was attributed to the implementation of Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 5-2023 in line with Section 37 of the TRAIN Law, which requires the filing of quarterly VAT returns within twenty-five days following the close of each taxable quarter wherein the transaction was recorded,” the Treasury said.

BIR collections as of end-April reached P841.2 billion and outperformed the previous year’s outturn by 13.31 percent or P98.8 billion.

Collections by the Bureau of Customs rose 2.87 percent in April to P67.6 billion from P65.7 billion in the previous