State budget revenues up 28% in May

The income tax, the VAT and customs duties are leaders of the ranking of the biggest tax collections to the state budget. Revenues of the general consolidated budget (local budgets not included) stood at 9.53 billion RON (2.72 billion euros) in May, a 28.5% nominal increase against May 2005, showed data published by the Ministry of Public Finance. Inflation, however, eroded this figure to 20.2% in real terms. Budget revenues for the first five months (local budgets included) stood at a total 38.97 billion RON (11 billion euros), a nominal increase of 21.2% and a real term increase of 12.7%, in comparison to the first five months of 2005. In this period, revenues of the state budget saw their biggest rise, 23.3% in nominal terms, compared to figures for the first five months of 2005. The income and payroll tax witnessed the fastest rate of growth, almost 33%. The growth is mainly due to the increase in the level of the 16% flat tax for dividends, bank interests and gains from real estate transactions, against the differentiated rates of 1% and 10% used in the same period last year. ZF