*

Calendar shift for government benefit payments amplifies

fall in

March deficit

*

Trump's tariffs push $2 bln increase in March customs

receipts

*

Six-month $1.3 trillion deficit second-highest ever for

Oct-March period

(Adds chart and details on tariff revenue, paragraphs 3, 5-8,

receipts and outlays, paragraphs 10-16)

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. government

posted a $161 billion budget deficit for March, down 32%, or $76

billion, from a year earlier, a decline due largely to a

calendar shift for benefit payments as receipts continued to

grow, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

The Treasury reported that net customs duties in March

totaled $8.2 billion, a $2.1 billion increase from a year

earlier and the highest since September 2022.

The increase is partly due to President Donald Trump's

tariff increases since February, a Treasury official said,

noting that the March increase was double the pace of roughly $1

billion year-on-year increases during each of the prior five

months.

But the budget results indicate that Trump's recent

statement that the U.S. was now collecting $2 billion a day from

his tariffs is an overstatement.

The U.S. began collecting a 10% duty on Chinese imports on

February 4, doubling the rate to 20% by March 4. On the same

day, Trump's 25% fentanyl-related tariffs on Canadian and

Mexican goods that are not compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada

trade agreement's rules of origin took effect.

The Treasury official said that there is typically about

a one-month lag between tariff rate increases and higher

collections.

The Treasury data does not distinguish between the duty

sources. It said that for the first six months of the fiscal

year, net customs duties totaled $43.6 billion, compared to

$37.7 billion in the prior year's October-March period.

SECOND-HIGHEST SIX-MONTH DEFICIT

The customs receipts were dwarfed by the $1.307 trillion

U.S. budget deficit that the Treasury reported for the first six

months of fiscal 2025, which started Oct. 1 - an increase of 23%

or $242 billion, from a year earlier.

It was the second-highest deficit for the first six months

of a fiscal year, after fiscal 2021's record $1.706 trillion

deficit, a gap that was inflated by COVID-19 induced spending

increases and revenue reductions.

For March, receipts grew 11% or $36 billion from a year

earlier to $368 billion, while outlays fell 7% or $40 billion to

$528 billion, the Treasury said. But since March started on a

weekend, $83 billion in benefit payments for the month were

shifted into February. Without this shift, the March deficit

would have been $244 billion, an increase of $24 billion or 11%

from a year earlier.

March receipts were driven by a 10% increase in taxes

withheld from paychecks, a 17% increase in non-withheld tax

payments and a 13% increase in gross corporate taxes compared to

a year earlier.

Fiscal year-to-date receipts rose 3% or $72 billion to

$2.260 trillion, a record for the first six months of a fiscal

year. Outlays also were a similar record, rising 10% or $315

billion to $3.567 trillion.

Increased six-month outlays were driven by higher

spending on Treasury debt interest, up 12% from a year earlier

to $582 billion, Social Security, up 9% to $808 billion and

healthcare programs, up 11% to $901 billion.

The Treasury official said the weighted average interest

rate for the month was 3.28%, up seven basis points from a year

earlier, but a rate that has held steady for the past four

months.