The national government’s budget deficit was steady at PHP248.9 billion in September this year as revenue growth outpaced spending, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.

The BTr’s latest cash operations report released on Thursday showed that the budget deficit during the month was 0.33 percent higher than last year’s PHP248.1 billion.

Revenue collections recorded a double-digit growth of 12.9 percent to PHP318.2 billion, driven by higher tax and non-tax revenues.

This raised cumulative collections as of end-September to PHP3.53 trillion, surpassing the PHP3.37 trillion collected in the same period last year by 4.99 percent.

The year-to-date collections accounted for 73.54 percent of the PHP4.81 trillion full-year revenue target.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected a total of PHP203.4 billion in September, higher by 11.18 percent from PHP183 billion in the same month last year.

For the first nine months of the year, BIR’s collections amounted to PHP2.44 trillion, up by 5.12 percent from last year’s PHP2.32 trillion.

It was, however, 2.6 percent lower than the PHP2.51 trillion nine-month program.

Collections of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) also went up by 14.7 percent to PHP92.1 billion from PHP80.3 billion the previous year.

The BTr said BOC’s cumulative collections, which reached PHP756.2 billion, also outpaced last year’s collections by 7.7 percent.

It also surpassed the PHP748.5 billion target for the period.

“Specifically, the agency’s sustained growth was driven by the increase in VAT (value-added tax) and duty collections as a result of peso depreciation and higher oil prices, as well as enforcement measures, improved valuation and assessment, and continued customs modernization,” said the BTr.

Non-tax collections also rose to PHP20.1 billion from PHP15.8 billion last year due to higher BTr collections.

Meanwhile, the government’s expenditures increased by 7.04 percent to PHP567.1 billion in September.

The increase was mainly due to the continuing implementation of education, health, and social protection services, as well as an uptick in infrastructure expenditures.

The BTr said the higher National Tax Allotment share of local government units and the Annual Block Grant to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also contributed to the increase in disbursements.

For the first nine months of the year, disbursements amounted to PHP4.84 trillion, exceeding both the January to September 2025 level of PHP4.48 trillion and the PHP4.77 trillion nine-month program by 7.90 percent. (PNA)