THE national government was able to pay in full its P300-billion short-term extended by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Not only did the national government pay the P300 billion provisional advances but was able to pay it earlier than its June 11 actual maturity date.
Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said repayment of the loan will “unwind the pandemic-related liquidity support from the BSP before the start of the next administration.”
According to Dominguez, because the country was able to maintain its economic recovery and strengthened its revenue collection the previous year, the government was able to scale down the amount of provisional advances it needed to only P300 billion last January from the previous year’s P540-billion requirement.
The provisional advances is a temporary measure under Section 89 of Republic Act 7653 or The New Central Bank Act that allows the BSP to extend short-term financing to the national government in an amount that is up to 20 percent of the country’s annual average income for the past three years.
Dominguez said that because of the amount advanced by the BSP, the government was able to implement major programs that would enable the country to recover despite lower income and revenue collection brought about by the pandemic for the past two years.