THE government recorded a budget surplus of P88 billion in January — nearly double the year-earlier P45.7 billion — as revenue collections outpaced spending, Treasury bureau data showed on Friday.

"The fiscal outturn was brought about by a faster 21.15 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase in revenue collection outpacing the 10.39-percent expansion in government spending," the Treasury said in a statement.

Revenues totaled P421.8 billion in the first month of 2024, up from P348.2 billion 12 months before, and the P333.9 billion in spending was also higher than the year-earlier P302.4 billion.

Tax collections accounted for the bulk, or 91.31 percent, of year-to-date revenue, with the remaining 8.69 percent generated from non-tax collections.

For the first month of the year, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) posted a 31.35-percent increase in collections to P308.4 billion from the P234.8 billion posted a year earlier.

"The improvement for the period was largely driven by the shift in VAT (value-added tax) remittance from monthly to quarterly, pushing the crediting of the fourth quarter of 2023 collections over to January 2024," the Treasury said.

The Bureau of Customs also saw revenues rise by 3.98 percent to P73.4 billion from P70.6 billion.

"The increase can be attributed to the agency's improved system of determining the customs value of imported goods, strengthened border protection, and concrete trade facilitation efforts," the Treasury said.

Treasury collections, meanwhile, fell by 5.73 percent to P16.7 billion due to lower income from interest on national government (NG) deposits and investments.

This was partially offset by the higher NG share from Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) income.

Other offices generated P19.9 billion in January, down 11.02 percent and "primarily attributed to reduced collections from the NG share from Malampaya proceeds."

As for spending, primary expenditures accounted for 77.77 percent of the total at P259.6 billion, up from P255.4 billion a year earlier.

Net interest payments (IP), which took up the remaining 22.3 percent, rose to P74.2 billion from P47.0 billion.

"The 58.02 percent or P27.3 billion YoY increment in IP was due to the net effect of premia from last year's reissuance of Treasury bonds and from global bonds issued in the same period," the Treasury said.

As a percentage of revenue and expenditures, interest payments for January increased to 17.60 percent and 22.23 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year levels of 13.49 percent and 15.53 percent.

Excluding interest payments, the national government recorded a P162.2-billion primary surplus for January, up 74.91 percent year on year, "due to the higher revenue outturn for the period."