State revenues miss target by 2 billion euros
Budget data paint a dramatic picture, especially in the revenues department, owing to the inability of citizens to pay their taxes.
The revised data of the 2015 state budget up to September point to a hole of 2 billion euros, while had the targets not been made more realistic the revenues gap would have come close to 5 billion euros.
Despite the adverse conditions, the budget showed a primary surplus of 3 billion euros at the end of September, but this is exclusively attributed to the state’s payments halt. However, to meet the budget targets, the state coffers need to receive no less than 19.1 billion euros in the last three months of the year, according to figures released by the Finance Ministry yesterday.
The net revenues of the state budget amounted to 34.29 billion euros at end-September, missing the revised target by 2.05 billion euros or 5.6 percent. The shortfall in income tax takings amounted to 194 million euros, while non-tax revenues lagged by 71 million.
State budget expenditure came to just 36.19 billion euros, down 3.88 billion from the target set by the budget and 1.89 billion euros from the same period last year.
