The government hopes to raise at least P55 billion in additional revenues from the sale of its stake in food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. and Lopez-controlled Manila Electric Co.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves told reporters during a press conference that the government was confident of disposing the big-ticket items within the year to compensate for the lower-than-expected tax revenues.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to sell these assets within the year,” Teves said.

He said the government aimed to raise P50 billion from the sale of its stake in San Miguel and another P5 billion from its direct interest in electricity giant Meralco.

“Very, very roughly we expect about P50 billion from the sale of San Miguel and in the case of Meralco, we expect very roughly about P5 billion. We are only talking of the national government stake because we are talking of the government deficit target. If that is realized, then that will cover the shortfall,” he added.

The government hopes to trim the budget deficit to P63 billion or 0.9 percent of gross domestic product from an eight-year low of P64.8 billion or 1 percent of GDP last year.

However, the government incurred a deficit of P52 billion in the first quarter of the year, breaching the P45.8-billion goal by P6.2 billion. The gap in the first three months of the year was 23.1 percent lower than the P67.6 billion deficit incurred in the same period last year. Lawrence Agcaoili