THE Bureau of Treasury said that the country’s budget deficit had declined by 65.2 percent in October.

The BTr said that this year due to higher revenue collections.

They said that the government incurs a budget deficit when spending exceeds its revenues.

"The National Government’s fiscal performance in October 2023 marked a substantial improvement, with the budget deficit declining by 65.27 percent (P64.7 billion) from the previous year to P34.4 billion. This was underscored by a notable 33.56 percent rise in revenue collections outpacing government expenditure growth of 8.32 percent," the BTr said in a report.

The same report also said that the revenues for the month already reached P385.8 billion.

This is up by 33.56 percent from last year's P288.9 billion.

Collections for the last 10 months or from January to October has seen P3.2 trillion, which is higher by 9.4 percent than the P2.9 trillion last year.

The BTr said that of the said amount P2.896 trillion had been generated because of the taxes, as the remaining P327.6 billion are from non-tax sources.

The expenditures for October on the other hand, increased by 8.32 percent to P420.2 billion.

"The expansion was mainly attributed to higher capital expenditures from the implementation of road infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways, modernization program of the Department of National Defense, and foreign-assisted rail transport projects of the Department of Transportation," the BTr noted.

"Larger interest payments, as well as maintenance and other operating expenses, particularly the expenditures of the Commission on Elections related to the conduct of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, also contributed to the higher spending outturn. However, the growth of disbursements was weighed down by the lower National Tax Allotment shares of local government units and the timing of subsidy releases to government corporations," it added.