By Anna Leah Gonzales
The national government’s budget deficit remains within the full-year target despite the increase recorded in August, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said on Thursday.
In its latest cash operations report, the BTr said the budget gap reached PHP161.3 billion, up from the PHP84.8 billion shortfall last year.
The BTr said the wider deficit could be attributed to higher expenditures in August from the settlement of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) arrears, while revenue collections declined due to lower non-tax revenues.
The latest data brought the January to August deficit to PHP1.05 trillion, higher by 21.30 percent than the PHP869.2-billion budget gap recorded in 2025.
The BTr said the budget deficit, however, is still within the PHP1.66 trillion full-year program.
Revenues
Total revenue collections reached PHP346 billion in August, down from last year’s PHP352.5 billion, due to the drop in non-tax revenues and slowdown in tax collections.
Tax revenues rose by 0.32 percent to PHP332.3 billion.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s collections slightly declined to PHP248.4 billion from last year’s PHP250.1 billion, due to the higher tax refund paid for the month.
Total collections for the first eight months of the year, however, went up by 4.60 percent to PHP2.24 trillion.
The Bureau of Customs, on the other hand, recorded a higher collection of PHP80.7 billion, up by 4.15 percent year-on-year.
Year-to-date collections also went up by 6.87 percent to PHP664.1 billion.
Non-tax revenues fell by 35 percent to PHP13.7 billion due to lower BTr income and collections from other offices.
Collections for January to August reached PHP289.8 billion, accounting for about 79.38 percent of the PHP365.1 billion.
Expenditure
Total expenditures, meanwhile, increased by 16 percent to PHP507.3 billion in August, driven by the PHP58.6 billion budgetary support to PhilHealth for the health insurance premium of indigents, senior citizens and point-of-service patients enrolled under the National Health Insurance Program.
The BTr said the larger national tax allotment shares of local government units also contributed to the increase in expenditures during the month.
For January to August, expenditures rose by 8.01 percent to PHP4.27 trillion.
