The national government will review the programmed revenue and expenditures in the remaining months in this year following the higher than target budget deficit in the first semester.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad, said the government will also look into the last-minute spending of the previous administration and may review the P325-billion budget deficit ceiling set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

“We need to find where the last month's beyond-target increase came from, on that basis, we'll review our revenue generation and expenditure program and decide whether to stay with DBCC-set deficit ceiling or not,” Abad said in a text message.

The government's budget deficit reached P196.7 billion in January to June this year, higher by P51.6 billion than the programmed P145.2 billion for the period.

The government attributed the higher than programmed deficit to P45.1 billion excess expenditure for the first six months of the year.

The financing shortfall in January to June was also P18.2 billion more than former Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves forecast of P178.5 billion deficit.

In June alone, the government posted a P34.6 billion deficit, or 14 percent higher compared with P30.2 billion in the same period last year.

Revenues during the month amounted to P92.1 billion, higher by 3 percent than P89.6 billion in the same month in 2009. (CSL)