March budget deficit rises 12% to ₧210.3B–Treasury

By Raadee S. Sausa

THE national government’s (NG) budget deficit for March

2023 widened to P210.3 billion, 12.04 percent or P22.6 billion higher than last year’s shortfall of P187.7 billion, data showed on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) traced the higher fiscal gap to an 11.99-percent decrease in government receipts even as spending was lower by 2.62 percent.

“Meanwhile, the cumulative budget gap for the first quarter of 2023 amounting to P270.9 billion dropped by 14.51 percent [P46.0 billion] on a year-to-date [YTD] basis as revenue collections improved by 4.38 percent or P34.3 billion during the period,” the treasury said.

The BTr also said that the total revenue collections for March has reached P258.7 billion, 11.99 percent or P35.2 billion lower than the previous year’s outcome of P293.9 billion.

Nevertheless, the YTD revenue for the three-month period still surpassed the P784.4 billion collected last year for the same period by 4.38 percent or P34.3 billion.

Tax collection accounted for 87.89 percent or P719.5 billion of the total with non-tax revenue contributing P99.2 billion or 12.11 percent, data from treasury showed.

“Collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenue [BIR] for March slipped by 17.27 percent or P29.4 billion year-over-year [YoY] to P141.0 billion,” the BTr said.

The slower outturn for the period was due in part to the impact of the transitory provisions of the Bureau’s Revenue Memorandum Circular 5-2023 in line with Section 37 of the TRAIN Law. “On a YTD basis, however, BIR’s P505.2-billion collection still topped the previous year’s achievement for the same period by 0.48 percent or P2.4 billion,” the BTr added.

Moreover, the Treasury said that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has raised P80.3 billion in March, rising by 13.51 percent or P9.6 billion on a YoY basis.

BOC’s overall collections of P213.8 billion as of end-March also represented a 13.40-percent improvement (or P25.3 billion) from the first quarter of 2022.

Furthermore, data also shows that income from the BTr for March slowed to P14.9 billion, down by

55.47 percent or P18.5 billion because of the high base effect of dividend remittances in 2022.

As of end-March 2023, total BTr revenue reached P39.0 billion, also declining by 19.94 percent (P9.7 billion) from last year’s P48.7 billion owing to the same reason.

“Non-tax collections from other offices including privatization proceeds and fees and charges increased to P22.0 billion in March 2023 from P16.7 billion last year, mainly because of the remittance of the unutilized balance from the Unconditional Cash Transfer program,” data shows.

The positive outturn for the period led to a higher cumulative revenue of P60.1 billion, rising by 58.59 percent or P22.2 billion YoY.

Meanwhile, the government’s expenditures for March 2023 went down by 2.62 percent or P12.6 billion YoY to P468.9 billion, and BTr explained this:

“Largely because of the lower National Tax Allotment shares of LGUs, as well as the timing of significant releases for some programs, such as the Department of Transportation’s [DOTr] Public Utility Vehicle [PUV] Service Contracting Program and Fuel Subsidy Program.”

US-PHL. . .

Also, the resulting overall expenditure of P1.1 trillion for the first quarter of 2023 slightly dropped by 1.06 percent (P11.6 billion) on a YTD basis caused by lower Interest Payments (IP) for January.

The March primary expenditures (net of interest payments) reached P408.0 billion, 4.22 percent (P18.0 billion) below the previous year’s figure.

For the first quarter of 2023, primary expenditures amounted to P947.6 billion, indicating a minimal decrease of 0.45 percent from the P951.9 billion recorded in the same period a year ago, Treasury data shows. For March, IP stood at P60.9 billion, or 9.63 percent (P5.4 billion) higher compared to the level posted in the same month in 2022.

Total IP of P142.0 billion as of endMarch, on the other hand, went down by 4.92 percent or P7.4 billion YoY.

Total IP accounted for 13.03 percent of expenditures for the first quarter of 2023, down from 13.56 percent a year ago.

Similarly, IP as a percentage of revenues went down to 17.34 percent from 19.04 percent last year, data shows.

Peza. . .

Continued from A1

“While President Biden’s policy is to reshore all manufacturing activities for American companies, we hope that the much improved bilateral relations with US will allow the Philippines to benefit from that policy, making the country an alternative location for US companies to offshore manufacturing activities,” Panga added. The Peza chief made these remarks as President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is currently on an “investment mission” in the US.

P anga emphasized that investment promotion agencies (IPAs) such as the Board of Investments (BOI) and Peza have benefited from the president’s previous foreign travels.

With this, Peza hopes to attract FDI in “advanced manufacturing, EV industry, Renewable Energy [RE] development, mineral processing, regenerative agriculture, and frontier technologies particularly in digital health, fintech, blockchain, artificial intelligence [AI] and big data—to boost our mix of industries and value adding in the ecozones.”

Apar t from attracting investments, Panga said the agency hopes the visit will “reopen talks” on the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program and the implementation of the US Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).

H e said these programs “should benefit the Philippine economy in general and put us apace with other allied and forward-thinking economies joining the multilateral economic cooperation.”

At a recent roundtable with Filipino journalists, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the US is not currently negotiating any such agreements with trading partners in particular, because “we do not see that traditional program being appropriate for the types of challenges and opportunities that we are facing right now.”

Instead, Tai zeroed in on the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), noting that the IPEF is “one of our highest priorities right now and it is really important to us that the Philippines is at the table and participating.”

B esides IPEF, the US GSP is another avenue viewed to deepen trade relations with the US. The GSP for the Philippines expired in 2020. But, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said, “we want to be renewed.”

The GSP deal is a unilateral preferential trade arrangement by the US to some 120 beneficiary developing countries and least developed beneficiary countries, including the Philippines.

Continued from A1 of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions,” Marcos said in his speech at the Oval Office.

In a joint declaration, both leaders agreed to institutionalize their defense priorities on land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace with the creation of new bilateral defense guidelines.

The guidelines include US support in the local military modernization initiatives with its pending plan to transfer two Island-class patrol vessels, two Protector-class patrol vessels, and three C-130H aircraft to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

It also covers the US government’s plans to provide sustainable development and investment in local communities in sites to be covered by the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

The two leaders also reiterated their position that peace and stability should be maintained in the Taiwan Strait and Ukraine.

Business deals

THEY also agreed on business deals, which are expected to boost the Philippines-US economies.

Biden disclosed he will be deploying the first ever Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines to encourage more US firms to invest in the country’s innovation economy, clean energy transition, critical minerals sector, and food security.

He also said the US plans to co-host with the Philippines the 6th annual Indo-Pacific Business Forum (IPBF) in Manila next year.

The event, Biden said, will help “establish the Philippines as a key hub for regional supply chains and high-quality investment.”

They also committed to prioritize the completion of the Philippines-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and support the creation of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).

As part of the ongoing efforts to craft the TIFA, a bilateral Labor Working Group will be established to ensure the provisions of the accord will “accelerate the implementation of internationally recognized labor rights.”

Also announced were the creation of an Open Radio Access Network Interoperability Network Lab in Manila to help in 5G rollout in the country and a US$ 3-billion private and public sector financing for construction of infrastructure in critical sectors, expanded air connectivity.

Both chief executives also agreed on expanding collaboration on renewable energy production and environmental protection, increased “knowledge sharing” through a Science and Technology Agreement, as well as joint outer space activities through a bilateral Civil Space Dialogue later this year.

Improved relations

THE meeting between Marcos and Biden on Monday was the first time another Philippine president visited the White House since former President Benigno C. Aquino III in 2012.

Aquino’s successor, former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, did not travel to the US during his term.

Duterte was known for his tirades against the US government as well as his attempts to scrap its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a move which he eventually decided to drop.

Biden said he decided to push for a stronger PhilippineUS alliance during his meeting with Marcos in New York in September.

“When we met in New York last year, you told me that— that a strong alliance has to continue, quote—I’m using your phrase—‘to evolve as we face the challenges of this new century...’ I couldn’t agree more that we have to. This relationship has to continue to evolve,” Biden said.

Marcos and Biden said they are looking forward to having another meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week in San Francisco this November.

Geopolitical agenda

WHILE labor groups lauded the creation of the TIFA bilateral labor group, it cautioned the government against being “embroiled in the geopolitical agenda” of the US.

“We strongly urge it to establish a truly independent foreign policy by strengthening alliances outside of the ambit of the US empire,” the Nagkaisa labor coalition said in a statement.

A s for the initiative of the US to mainstream better working conditions, the coalition urged Biden to cite the urgency of investigating and putting an end to systemic violations of freedom of association.

“We do note that the joint declaration opens a door for trade unions that would allow us to press for labor and other needed reforms,” Nagkaisa said.

PMI. . .

Continued from A1

The data from PSA showed that the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) for manufacturing recorded a year-onyear increase of 7.2 percent in February, slower than the annual growth rate of 11.2 percent in the previous month. In February 2022, VoPI recorded a faster annual increment of 69.8 percent.

PSA said the VoPI performance in February was mainly due to the slower annual rate in the index of manufacture of food products, which reached 6.4 percent. It was at 14 percent in January.