The National Statistics Office showed that the Government’s Consolidated Fund has reported a deficit of €462.6 million in June 2022, with the Recurrent Revenue amounting to €2,566.2 million in the first half of 2022.
This was 17.2% higher than the €2,189.2 million reported in the previous year, with the largest increase recorded being in Income Tax, marking €142.6 million.
Value Added Tax marked an increase of €125.3 million, followed by Social Security (€59.8 million), Grants (€51.9 million), Licences, Taxes and Fines (€9.8 million), Rents (€2.9 million), Reimbursements (€2.5 million), Central Bank of Malta (€2.2 million) and Dividends on Investment (€1.1 million).
The NSO statistic showed that the rise in revenue was partially offset by decreases under Fees of Office (€18.2 million), Miscellaneous Receipts (€1.8 million) and Customs and Excise Duties (€1.0 million)
Total expenditure stood at €3,028.8 million, marking a percentage of 0.5% higher than the previous year by the end of June 2022.
Government Finance Data between the periods of January and June 2022 marked a Recurrent Expenditure total of €2,672.3 million, an increase of €18.4 million in comparison to the €2,653.8 million reported in the first six months of 2021.
Contributing mainly to this increase was a €43.4 million increase reported under Programmes and Initiatives. NSO statistics also showed an increase under Personal Emoluments (€6.4 million).
By the end of June 2022, Government’s capital spending amounted to €270.9 million, €2.5 million higher than 2021. This increase resulted from higher expenditure towards Investment incentives (€12.7 million) and Film industry incentives (€8.9 million), it showed.
Central Government debt stood at €8,413.9 million, a €616.1 million rise from 2021. The increase reported under Malta Government Stocks (€494.1 million) was the main contributor to the rise in debt, it showed.
The debt position includes the actual debt which is held by Government.