The government on Wednesday maintained that the country's budget deficit target will stay at P177.2 billion as it has set last month.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said that the Development Budget Coordination Committee is keeping its P177.2-budget deficit ceiling for now as they "continue to monitor how the domestic economy will be affected by external developments and how this will affect revenue collection efforts."

"We are hopeful that tax administration measures such as the Oplan Kandado program will help us increase tax revenues despite the adverse developments. We are also hopeful that Congress will support us in our proposed revenue enhancement measures to further increase revenues which we need to sustain economic growth and provide for the needs of our people," Teves said.

Yesterday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto announced that the country's budget deficit could widen to as much as P257 billion this year if tax collections fall short of target, the state fails to sell assets, and if imports shrink by around 10 percent.

"Assuming revenues will be flat, the deficit will hit P200 billion. If we don't have privatisation (proceeds), then it goes up to P230 billion," Recto told reporters.

The National Statistics Office reported a 34.5-percent plunge on imports in the first month of the year as the global economic slowdown continued to take its toll on trade. This was the lowest monthly total for imports since February 2005, and the fourth straight month that imports have fallen on an annual basis. With Reuters