WASHINGTON (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 $8.75 billion, about a $2 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.

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 Treasury reported a $1.307 trillion budget deficit for the first six months of fiscal 2025, which started Oct. 1, up 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.