Bulgaria reports 286.4M leva Budget deficit for January-April
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has reported that the consolidated Budget deficit for the first four months of the year was 286.4 million leva, about 69.3 million leva higher than in the same period of 2012.
In April, the consolidated Budget reported a surplus of 509.2 million leva (compared to 473.8 million leva in April 2012) because of the traditional revenue boost from income tax receipts – the last day of April is the annual deadline for submitting income tax forms for the previous year, in Bulgaria.
The deficit would have been even lower, but 100 million leva were transferred to the social security budget for advance payments of pensions and other state benefits ahead of the six-day public holiday (spanning Labour Day, Eastern Christianity Easter and St George’s Day) at the start of May, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The state Budget had a deficit of 126.3 million leva and the EU funds deficit was 160.1 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first four months of 2013 was 395.7 million leva.
Consolidated Budget revenues in January-April stood at 9.29 billion leva, roughly 30.4 per cent of the amount targeted for the full year, including 7.39 billion leva in taxes (31.6 per cent targeted for the year). Tax revenue was up 5.7 per cent compared to the same period of 2012 and total revenue was 8.8 per cent higher, in nominal terms.
A shortfall in excise duties collection (3.6 per cent lower than in the first four months of 2012) was offset by increases in other revenue areas – corporate taxes (11.3 per cent higher), income taxes (10.5 per cent up) and value-added tax receipts (8.4 per cent up).
Budget spending in January-April stood at 9.58 billion leva, an increase of 9.4 per cent over last year and roughly 30.2 per cent of the full-year target. Interest payments during that period stood at 351 million leva, about 40.1 per cent of the amount projected for 2013.
The fiscal reserve at the end of April was 5.4 billion leva, the Finance Ministry said.
(Photo: Alessandro Paiva)
