Charles Teves
Filipinos are more worried than ever for their livelihood after the Government announced the need for further revenue collection of existing taxes as the national debt hit the P13-trillion at the end of last month.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said that the total outstanding debt increased by P133.64 billion, which got incurred in August. All the months leading up to the end of August had a debt stock increase of P1.29 trillion or 11 percent.
At the end of July, the debt stock increased by 1.3 percent, which could attribute to local borrowings that made up 69 percent or P8.94 trillion.
“For August, the increase in domestic debt resulted from the net issuance of government securities amounting to P109.43 billion and the P1.78 billion impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar,” the BTr said.
“Since the beginning of the year, the domestic debt portfolio has increased by P772.98 billion or 9.5 percent due to continued reliance on domestic borrowing to lessen the impact of currency fluctuations.”
Netizens are not too-thrilled with the news about price increase in of commodities.
₱13,000,000,000,000.
That is the national debt of the Philippines. #PagdurusaSaGitnaNgF1Race #BBM #PangulongWalangMalasakit— I (@IreneWhatsUp) October 3, 2022
Kaya pa ba? https://t.co/jIVmr73kcS
— ogie diaz (@ogiediaz) October 3, 2022
HELLOOOOOOO. IT'S MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES. MORE TAXES MORE FUN FOR THE MARCOSES. https://t.co/Z6REYQaalW
— 박혜진 (@PonderosaCanopy) October 3, 2022
Many disapproved of Pres. Bongbong Marcos’s recent trip to Singapore while the country drowns in taxes.
Goodbye Philippines!! I AM SO DONE. I can’t wait to leave this hell hole. Collect taxes from the greedy motherf*cking political clans first‼️‼️ https://t.co/oVHOWQ0gqg
— Tiya Isabel (@actorjgfan) October 3, 2022
Never cheat on your taxes.
We have to support the lavish lifestyle of Marcos Jr & his son.
— Clive Reyes JR (@datumx11) October 3, 2022
The Philippines is drowning in debt, natural disasters, the continued downfall of the peso et al. and they are living the life of the rich and (in)famous😑
— Miya🧸 (@OutlanderBabe) October 3, 2022
Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, also said that foreign borrowings represented 31 percent of the total at P4.08 trillion.
“In view of large debt incurred of more than P5 trillion since the pandemic started in 2020, the new administration may still need to further intensify tax revenue collections based on existing tax laws, come up with new tax reform measures, increase tax rates, among others to further boost structural sources of government revenues,” he said.
He added that the Government could adopt a “more disciplined spending” with usage of fiscal reform measures like dealing with corruption and better monitoring of public funds.
“All of [these] would help further narrow or improve the budget deficit and, in turn, slow the growth in the national government’s outstanding debt, as well as better prepare for eventual payment of the large borrowings incurred during the pandemic as they fall due in the future,” he said.
The Government had to pay P1.6 trillion in debt based on the proposed national budget law for 2023. Next year, the debt stock is [also] expected to hit a new high of P14.63 trillion. At the end of 2022, local borrowings would reach P9.2 trillion and foreign borrowings by P4.22 trillion.
