MANILA (AFP) - The Philippines' budget deficit has narrowed sharply from government targets amid improved revenue collections, President Gloria Arroyo said Monday after ringing the opening bell at the stock exchange.
Arroyo has pledged to balance the budget by 2010 after she rushed tax reform through Congress last year and introduced a value added tax (VAT) which was expanding to 12 percent from 10 percent in January.
As a result the government's fiscal position has improved and Arroyo said the budget deficit had reached 15.4 billion pesos (30.19 million dollars) in January, compared with a targeted ceiling of 20.9 billion pesos.
The figure compared with 16.5 billion pesos in the same period last year.
The treasury bureau added that revenue collection for January reached 72.6 billion pesos, up from 64.3 billion pesos the previous year
The Budget deficit in 2005 reached 146.5 billion pesos (2.87 billion dollars), lower than the target of 180 billion targeted for the year.
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