The government posted a budget deficit of P1.67 trillion in 2021, up 21.8 percent from the P1.37-trillion gap a year ago, as the 10.6-percent expansion in expenditures outpaced the 5.24-percent increase in revenues, the Bureau of the Treasury said Tuesday.
The Treasury said in a statement the full-year deficit was equivalent to 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, lower than the programmed 9.3 percent but still higher compared the 7.6 percent recorded in the previous year.
“However, the deficit was still 10.00 percent or P185.5 billion within the P1.9-trillion program for the year,” it said, adding the P338.0-billion budget gap for the month of December 2021 similarly expanded by 11.70 percent or P35.4 billion over last year’s level, driven by the 5.21-percent growth in government spending alongside a 3.03-percent contraction in revenue collection,” it said.
The full-year revenue of P3.0 trillion improved 5.2 percent or P149.6 billion a year ago and was 4.3 percent or P124.0 billion better than the P2.9-trillion program. Ninety-one percent or P2.7 trillion of the total was generated through tax revenues that grew 9.4 percent from the previous year’s.
Non-tax sources, on the other hand, comprised the remaining 9 percent and posted a 24.4-percent contraction as collections normalized from the previous year. Meanwhile, December collections narrowed to P231.3 billion, 3 percent or P7.2 billion lower than the P238.5 billion raised in the same month a year ago.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue collected P2.1 trillion for the year after deducting P8.2 billion in tax refunds paid to various claimants. BIR’s final collection for the period showed a 6.5-percent or P127.1-billion improvement from a year ago’s performance and was just 0.2 percent short of the P2.1-trillion full-year program.
Meanwhile, the BIR posted a marginal decrease of 0.6 percent or P1.0 billion in its December 2021 collection, with actual revenue of P162.3 billion.
The Bureau of Customs’ full-year collection reached P643.6 billion (net of the P7.3 billion tax refund), outperforming last year’s achievement (P537.7 billion) and the target (P616.7 billion) by 19.7 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.
“The Customs’ strong performance was credited to sustained enforcement activities, improved valuation, as well as improvement of importation volume. BOC brought in P60.3 billion for December 2021, also growing by 32.93 percent or P14.9 billion year on year,” the Treasury said.
Likewise, the Bureau of the Treasury’s income amounted to P125.3 billion and reflected a full-year contraction of 43 percent or P94.3 billion, mainly due to lower dividends on national government shares of stocks, interest on advances from government-owned and -controlled corporations, and other government service income.
Despite this, the Treasury overshot its full-year program of P74.7 billion by 67.8 percent or P50.6 billion as dividend remittances remain robust along with higher income from BSF investment and interest income from national government deposits.
BTr’s collection for December 2021 similarly slowed down by 43.4 percent or P3.6 billion largely due to lower dividend remittances and income from BSF investment for the month.
Total revenue from other offices (other non-tax including privatization proceeds and fees and charges) for 2021 stood at P140.4 billion, 6.5 percent faster than collections recorded a year ago and was 52.6 percent better than the programmed level of P92.0 billion. The December collection of P3.1 billion dropped 85 percent compared to last year’s outturn of P20.8 billion.
On the other hand, full-year disbursements reached P4.7 trillion, growing 10.60 percent or P448.2 billion year on year owing to infrastructure and other capital expenditures, continued spending for various recovery measures including vaccine procurement and equity infusion in support of government financial institutions’ lending assistance programs, as well as higher internal revenue allotment shares of local government units.