By Lawrence Agcaoili

The Philippines overshot its fiscal goal in the first quarter of the year after incurring a record monthly budget deficit in March on the back of higher government spending and lower-than-expected revenue collections.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves told reporters in a press briefing that the government posted a budget shortfall of P52 billion in the first three months of the year, exceeding its P45.8-billion target for the period by P6.2 billion.

The government actually posted a record monthly collection of P33.4 billion in March, eclipsing the previous all-time high of P30.83 billion in September of 2004. But higher expenses resulted in a wider March deficit, or up 22.6 percent from the P27.2-billion shortfall incurred in the same month last year.

The first quarter deficit already accounted for 82.5 percent of the full-year target of P63 billion or 0.9 percent of gross domestic product this year from an eight-year low of P64.8 billion or 1 percent of GDP last year.

However, the budget gap in the first three months was 23.1 percent lower than the P67.6-billion deficit registered in the same period last year.

Teves attributed the higher-than-expected deficit in the first quarter to the lower-than-programmed revenue collections as well as to the rise in government spending to take advantage of the good weather and avoid the spending ban before the May 14 elections.

Government expenditures increased 6.1 percent to P289.3 billion in the first quarter of the year from P272.6 billion in the same quarter last year. For the month of March alone, spending kicked up 13.8 percent to P108.4 billion from P95.3 billion in the same month last year.

“We’ve had a very challenging first quarter but we have seen improvement in March. What we are trying to do is to come up with an action plan that will enable us to still reach our target from the tax sources. We are sticking to the P63-billion budget deficit target,” Teves said.

He reported that revenue collections during the period were P18.5 billion lower than the P255.8 billion target. Revenue agencies collected P237.3 billion, which were 15.8 percent higher than the P205 billion posted during the same period last year.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue missed its P155.2-billion collection goal by P12.1 billion after riasing P143.1 billion in the first quarter of the year or 6 percent higher than the P135 billion in the same period last year.

The Bureau of Customs fell short of its P46.9-billion target by P6.7 billion after collecting P40.2 billion. The agency’s collection in the first quarter was also P2.1 billion lower than the P42.3 billion revenues it bookedin the same period last year.