THE Marcos administration is planning to borrow P200 billion from domestic creditors in the first month of next year to finance the government’s budget deficit, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.
Based on a Treasury memorandum posted on its website, the national government has raised its local financing program for January by 48 percent from P135 billion in December 2022.
The bureau indicated that it will sell P60 billion worth of Treasury bills (T-bills) and P140 billion of Treasury bonds (T-bonds) next month.
The Treasury will still hold a weekly auction for T-bills and T-bonds, offering P5 billion worth of each 91-, 182-day and 364-day long-term IOUs every Monday and issue them on Jan. 4, 11, 18, and 25.
Moreover, the agency will issue P35 billion worth of seven-, 13-, 20-, and 10-year T-bonds on Jan. 5, 12, 19, and 26, respectively.
Last month, the Treasury bureau cancelled some of its domestic borrowings given the government’s better than expected revenue collection performance.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said the bureau borrowed around P2.1 trillion from local and foreign creditors in 2022.
De Leon said this amount was enough to cover the government’s full-year financing program.
The government was supposed to borrow P2.2 trillion this year. However, it opted to borrow less after the Bureau of the Customs exceeded its full-year target by 3.3 percent as early as Nov. 15, generating P745.50 billion.
Based on the Treasury data, the P2.1 billion total borrowings also declined by 19 percent compared with P2.6 trillion last year.
Last Nov. 30, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno expressed optimism that the government will surpass its collection goal this year, banking on the Customs revenue excess.
“Our collection as of one month ago is P2.9 trillion, [over] 18 percent higher than last year and about 90 percent of our goal for the year,” Diokno said. “I’m very sure we will exceed our revenue target.”
In a related development, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) slashed its collection target for the year to P2.392 trillion from P2.438 trillion.
BIR Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui, Jr. said this year’s revised target was 1.87 percent or P45.71 billion lower than its original goal.
In the first 10-month of the year, the BIR collected P1.9 trillion, below by 3.5 percent against its revised P1.97 trillion goal for the period.
To attain its lowered target, the bureau needs to generate P490 billion in the final two-months of 2022.
The BIR is tasked to collect at least P240.27 billion in November and P178.27 billion in December. (Chino S. Leyco – Manila Bulletin)
