Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-08-05

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] State budget shortfall for first six months of 2013 is resolvable, Alternate FinMin says

[01] State budget shortfall for first six months of 2013 is resolvable, Alternate FinMin says

The state budget net revenues, before returns, came to 4.769 million euros, 600 million euros or 14.3 percent higher since July 2012 (4.172 million euros) and by 118 mln or 2.5 pct over the monthly target of 4.651 mln.

Staikouras called the result very encouraging, given the shortfall of revenues from personal income tax (which were below target by 285 mln or 33.7 pct for the month, attributed to extensions in income tax filing and therefore processing of income tax returns) and from direct taxes of past years (which fell by 56 mln or 29.9 pct in July against the target, because of the delayed notifications sent out to collect the Property Tax 2011).

Staikouras said that revenues from tax filed by legal entities surpassed the monthly target by 82 mln euros or 48.3 pct, which proves that the shortfall of the last two months, created by the extension of income tax filing deadlines, is covered.

Indirect taxes were 247 mln euros or 11 pct over targets, while revenues from the Public Investment Programme came to 2.215 mln, more than triple the target of the month (700 mln), because of revenue from the European Union, which shows, he said, that Greece is beginning to absorb EU structural funds better.

State budget revenues came close to 7 billion euros, the minister said, which more than covered the shortfall of revenues registered the first six months of the year.

In additional data he gave, Staikouras said that tax return amounts to 314 mln, higher by 21.4 pct over June, and 12.7 pct above target, encouraging liquidity.

Above-mentioned revenues do not include the 1.500 mln from the transfer of returns on Greek bonds from European central banks (the Securities Market Programme, or SMPs), which was included in the 4 bln. euros following the Eurogroup decision on July 8. In the future, these revenues will be included in the state budget; they are expected to reach 10 bln. in total by 2025. They are used entirely to cover the fiscal gap, therefore are deposited directly in a segregated account and are not part of the targets of the fiscal adjustment programme, Staikouras clarified.

Wrapping up, Staikouras said that "the execution of the state budget in an environment of deep recession and historically bloated unemployment allows for restrained and realistic optimism in terms of the public revenues."

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