The publication of government figures in the Government Gazette normally does not raise any ripples. And the latest numbers were for October, whereas it will only be at year’s end that the final figures can be drawn and comparisons made as many people usually leave it till the last month, or even the last of the last month, to pay their dues.
Yet the figures for the government finances as they stood at the end of October, the Comparative Returns of Revenue and of Expenditure from 1 January to 31 October are still revealing and worthy of close study.
To start with revenue: we have Customs and Excise Duties at relatively the samel level while licences, taxes and fines have decreased from €227 million last year to €189 million this time.
Income tax, a greater indicator of the state of the economy, decreased from €865 million to €749 million, more than €100 million. One must however remember that the rates of top income tax were lowered in the 2013 Budget.
Value Added Tax, perhaps a more clear indicator of the consumer side of the economy, decreased from €534 million to €454 million.
In all, the government received €2,316 million instead of the €2,715 million it received last year, around €400 million less.
On the other hand, it is equally clear the government has been making huge efforts to cut down on expenditure.
Recurrent expenditure, before factoring in the EFSF Facility (for loan agreement with Air Malta), decreased from €2,488 million to €2,108 million.
An even greater effort has been made in Capital Expenditure, which has been cut from €343 million to €263 million.
Nevertheless, total expenditure this year - €3 billion – is still short of the €2,793 million received as total revenue. The irony is that last year’s revenue - €3,441 million – would have been more than enough for this year’s tighter total expenditure.
There is enough evidence that this administration has avoided the splurges made last year - €82 million for the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, €140 million for the Ministry for Finance, €18 million for the Ministry for Justice and €44 million for the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications – as Recurrent Expenditure. In fairness, one must add that some of these line items have been absorbed by the new ministries that have been set up, which also added their own new expenditures.
Nor is there any more the capital spending done last year by these ministries - €66 million by the Ministry for Resources, €72 million by the Ministry for Finance, €8 million by the Ministry for Justice and €79 million by the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications.
But the main cost centres of our economy are still there: €680 million in social benefits (€782 last year), €140 million (€157 million) for education and employment, and above all €306 million (€330 million) for health.
As every family knows, anyone who ‘takes care of the pennies’ will find that the ‘pounds take care of themselves’. But running a country with such a complex social system and with so many diverse facets, also means that penny-pinching will never do the trick when far vaster and strategic decisions would be required.
The discussions (if that is the right word) of these days about the health system fall right in the centre of this concern.