“WE HAVE strived to increase tax collections without imposing new taxes and we have been very aggressive in eliminating wasteful spending,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, in response to the Government’s highest monthly fiscal surplus in 25 years.

The national government recorded a surplus of P26.258 billion for the month of April, which brings its fiscal position for the first four months of the year to a surplus of P61 million.

“According to our economic managers, this strong fiscal performance was a result of an 18.22 percent increase in revenue collections for the first four months to P461.4 billion, while our expenditures for the same period decreased by 11.6 percent to P461.35 billion,” Lacierda added.

The reduction in expenditures was in large part due to a 17.98 percent reduction in interest payments, as reported earlier.

The P22.4 billion reduction in interest payments is attributable to the Department of Finance’s Liability Management Program, which managed to stretch maturities on loans to as long as 25 years.

It is worthy to note that the P22.4 billion in savings from interest payments is enough to fund the entire CCT program for the year, which was given an allocation of P21 billion in the 2011 budget.

According to Lacierda, the primary surplus of Php .061 billion, as opposed to a deficit of P131.8 billion posted April 2010, “is a clear sign that we are being very careful in managing the people’s money.”