Budget revenues miss revised target, too
Budget revenues for the first seven months of the year have missed even the revised target of the midterm fiscal plan, lagging by 87 million euros, according to the Finance Ministry.
The deficit of the budget stood at 15.57 billion euros in the year to July, against a revised target of 16.47 billion, rising from 12.45 billion in the same period last year.
Net budget revenues came to 26.85 billion, missing the target by 6.4 percent in the first seven months of 2011, a slight improvement after missing it by 8.3 percent in the first six months.
The ministry argued that revenues are lagging because the recession is greater than the estimate made when the budget was drafted, because road tax revenues were far smaller this January compared with January 2010 owing to the smaller extension granted to motorists for payment, because of the reduced income tax collection as people?s income has been reduced, and because of the increased tax returns after settling previous years? outstanding tax cases.
Total spending is reduced by almost 1 billion euros (992 million euros).
The ministry claims the gap in revenues will be bridged in the remaining five months of 2011, as the tax regulations from the application of the midterm fiscal plan will start having an impact.
