Data from the government’s Consolidated Fund for April 2007 shows that the shortfall between recurrent revenue and total expenditure for the first four months of 2007 amounted to Lm56.7 million, or almost Lm0.4 higher than the shortfall of Lm56.4 million recorded for the same period in 2006, the National Statistics Office reported yesterday.

While recurrent revenue increased by Lm9.9 million, total expenditure increased by Lm10.2 million.

During the first four months of the year, revenue from income tax increased by Lm10 million. At the same time, revenue from value added tax and from social security contributions added Lm3.1 million and Lm3.6 million respectively. Meanwhile, revenue from grants was down from Lm16.3 million last year to Lm2.1 million for the period under review.

Recurrent expenditure amounted to Lm259.7 million, an increase of Lm14.5 million compared to the first four months of 2006. During the period under review higher outlays were reported on social security benefits (+Lm7.9 million), mainly on account of an increase of Lm3.5 million on widows’ pensions, and on medicines and surgical materials by the Health Ministry (+Lm3.6 million).

Concurrently higher outlays by the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry (+Lm2.6 million) were mainly brought about by comparatively higher expenditure under the “contributions to government entities” category.

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the January-April period declined by Lm0.7 million, amounting to Lm27.2 million.

This decline was the result of lower interest payments on the government’s long term borrowing.

Capital expenditure for the first four months of the year amounted to Lm27.6 million, registering a decline of Lm3.6 million, compared to the expenditure of Lm31.2 million for January-April 2006.

This fall was in part due to a reduction in capital outlay by the Finance Ministry (-Lm2.8 million), the Tourism and Culture Ministry (-Lm1.9 million), and the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry (Lm0.9 million). No new loans were taken up by the government during the first four months of the year.

The central government debt outstanding at the end of April amounted to Lm1,378.6 million, a reduction of Lm40.7 million compared to the debt position at the end of April 2006.

This fall was the result of a reduction of Lm33.4 million in the government stocks, as well as by a reduction of Lm10.2 million in foreign borrowing. Short term borrowing (Treasury Bills) stood at Lm185.2 million, an increase of Lm3.4 million