The national government’s total revenue collections reached PHP4.419 trillion last year, exceeding the target of PHP4.27 trillion, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
In a report released on Thursday, the BTr said the revenue collection last year is equivalent to 16.72 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the highest revenue effort since 1997.
The BTr attributed the higher revenue collections to the better-than-expected non-tax revenue collections.
Data showed that non-tax revenues recorded double-digit growth of 56.61 percent to PHP618.3 billion, exceeding the revised full-year target of PHP449.6 billion.
“The better-than-expected outturn was primarily due to strengthened efforts to generate windfall collections such as that from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concession fee (PHP30 billion) and the PHP167.2 billion fund balance transfers from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC) and Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC),” the BTr said.
Aside from non-tax revenues, the BTr also reported the continued increase in tax collections from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
BIR collections rose 13.29 percent to PHP2.85 trillion from PHP2.51 trillion in 2023.
“The agency’s total uptake also exceeded the PHP 2.849 trillion adjusted full-year program by 0.09 percent (PHP2.7 billion), driven by increased Value-Added Tax (VAT) collections,” BTr said.
BOC collections also went up by 3.79 percent to PHP916.7 billion.
However, the BTr said the outturn of BOC for the year fell short of the PHP939.7 billion revised full-year 2024 program mainly due to the reduced tariff on rice and selected electric vehicles, as well as the extension of lower tariff on meat products under Executive Order 50.
Expenditures
For 2024, disbursements amounted to PHP5.925 trillion, up by 11.04 percent from 20243 and also surpassed the revised 2024 program of PHP5.75 trillion.
“The strong disbursement performance was largely driven by infrastructure and other capital outlays of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), maintenance and other operating expenses for various health and social protection programs, and personnel services expenditures due to the implementation of the 1st tranche of salary adjustments of qualified civilian government employees pursuant to Executive Order No. 64 dated August 2, 2024,” the BTr further said.
The bureau also said additional expenditures from the Unprogrammed Appropriations, such as the Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances for health care and non-health care workers and; Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients Program of the Department of Health; Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development; and Rice Farmers Financial Assistance program of the Department of Agriculture, also contributed to the robust disbursement performance in 2024.
The BTr meanwhile said the budget deficit last year narrowed by 0.38 percent to PHP1.506 trillion as the robust growth in revenues outpaced the rise in expenditures.
As a percentage of GDP, the deficit significantly improved to 5.70 percent in 2024 from 6.22 percent in 2023. (PNA)
