"The budget surplus for the first seven months amounted to 42 million euros thanks to tight spending control and higher revenues, 18,2 percent more than last year," it was stated in yesterday's announcement by the Ministry of Finance, but they again "forgot" to state that this the "surplus" achieved thanks to the fact that the planned obligations of 124 million euros were not paid for these seven months.
More precisely, if all planned expenses were paid, the budget would not be in surplus, but in deficit by 82 million euros.
Planned budget expenditures for the seven months of this year were planned at the amount of 1,651 billion euros, and the amount of 1,527 billion was paid.
The announcement states that "budget expenditures in the period January-July 2024 amounted to 1.527,32 million euros, which represents about 93% of the plan, and compared to the same month of the previous year, they are 232 million more." It was not stated how much the expenses were less than the plan, although those comparisons were used for incomes where they could boast.
That these savings were not achieved "thanks to tight spending control" is shown by the fact that 78,6 million euros were paid for capital investments, while the plan was 112,5 million. That is, the Government "saved" on capital investments" 33,9 million euros, or a quarter of the total savings.
The government also saved significantly on payments for social protection and pensions, where, instead of the planned 583 million euros, 571,9 million euros were spent, that is, savings of 11,1 million euros were made for these categories of residents.
For the rest of the expenditure categories, no information is provided in the announcement, so it is not possible to see where the Government has achieved "savings".
The Ministry said that in July a budget surplus of around 11 million euros was achieved, but for that month they did not specify the amount of the "savings" that occurred because they did not pay the planned expenses.
Regarding revenue items, the announcement states that for seven months of this year, budget revenues amounted to 1,57 billion euros, which is 95,5 million more than planned.
Income from corporate income tax, which is paid by companies on the basis of the profit achieved in the last year, amounted to 197,6 million euros, which is 51,8 million or 35,6 percent more compared to the plan.
Income from personal income tax amounted to 45,9 million euros, which is 7,6 million or 19,9 percent more than planned.
Revenues from value added tax (VAT) were realized in the amount of 655,4 million euros, which is 13,8 million or 2,2 percent more than the plan.
Income from contributions was realized in the amount of 321 million euros, which is 16,2 million, or 5,3 percent more compared to the plan.
In July, revenues amounted to EUR 259,9 million, which is EUR 20,1 million more than planned.
Bonus video:
