In the first four months of 2015, Government’s Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €108.6 million, the NSO said.
During January-April, recurrent revenue registered an increase of €167.6 million which outweighed the rise in expenditure of €37.9 million, hence resulting in a positive change in the Government’s Consolidated Fund of €129.7 million.
In January-March, recurrent revenue was recorded at €1,048.7 million, up from €881.1 million last year. The major contributor to the comparative increase of 19.0 per cent was higher proceeds from Grants, by €110.7 million. Other significant increases were registered in Customs and Excise Duties (€27.0 million), Social Security (€9.4 million), Miscellaneous Receipts (€9.0 million) and Income Tax (€5.7 million), among others. On the other hand, Fees of Office registered a decrease of €3.3 million.
Compared to the first four months last year, total expenditure recorded an increase of €37.9 million due to higher recurrent and capital expenditures and interest payments.
Recurrent expenditure went up by €18.4 million, totalling €948.1 million. Personal Emoluments and Operational and Maintenance Expenses recorded increases of €14.0 million and €3.1 million respectively. Contributions to Government Entities and Programmes and Initiatives registered marginal increases. The major developments in the Programmes and Initiatives category involved lower outlays on social security benefits (€7.7 million) and medicines and surgical materials (€1.4 million), offset by added expenditure on the one-time additional bonus (€7.1 million) and child care for all (€3.0 million).
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the first four months of 2015 stood at €78.4 million from €72.2 million last year.
In addition, Government’s Capital Expenditure stood at €130.8 million, up by €13.4 million from last year. This increase was mainly due to added outlays on the acquisition of property for public purposes (€8.6 million), enterprise investment incentives (€6.7 million), ICT core services agreement (€3.2 million) and EU funded expenditure on agriculture (€3.1 million). These were partially outweighed by a lower equity injection to the national air carrier.
At the end of April 2015, Central Government Debt stood at €5,364.0 million, an increase of €68.6 million over the corresponding period last year. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks, which added €266.6 million. On the other hand, Treasury Bills and
Foreign Loans went down by €165.3 million and €10.5 million respectively. As a result of consolidation, higher holdings by government funds in Malta Government Stocks resulted in a reduction in debt of €27.6 million. The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €5.4 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of April 2014, and totalled €60.8 million.