The Department of Finance (DoF) is looking at increasing the government's borrowing requirement this year following the revenue eroding measures that Congress had earlier passed.

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, said the implementation of recently signed Expanded Senior Citizens Act alone cost the government P1.6 billion in foregone revenue.

Beltran, however, declined to give details on how the government would raise the additional borrowings, whether through domestic or international creditors.

For 2010, the domestic borrowing program is P510 billion. The Bureau of the Treasury is borrowing P110 billion in the first quarter from the local market.

Meanwhile, the Philippines is prepared to borrow up to $2.5 billion from foreign creditors this year to help plug a widening budget deficit.

In January, the government had raised $1.5 billion through the sale of dollar-denominated bonds, making it the first Asian sovereign debt issuer in 2010. To complete government's commercial borrowing programmed for the year, the DoF still needs to raise $1 billion, which is seen through the issuance of samurai bonds this month.

Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves earlier said the government would raise the samurai bond float from the original $500 million to $1 billion if there was strong demand and favorable pricing.

The Philippines requires a huge amount to fund this year to finance the government’s budget deficit, which is seen to reach P293.2 billion.

For the first three months of the year, DoF is aiming to end the period with P110.9 billion budget deficit, or 7 percent lower compared to the P119.6 billion deficit in the same period last year. Teves had said spending would be higher this year due to rehabilitation of areas damaged by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng last year.