A deficit of €85.3 million was registered in the consolidated fund in the first quarter this year, the National Statistics Office said.
It said recurrent revenue registered an increase of €136.9 million while expenditure went down by €3.3 million, thereby resulting in a positive change of €140.2 million.
In January-March, recurrent revenue was recorded at €774.7 million, up from €637.8 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative increase of 21.5 per cent were higher proceeds from grants by €103 million.
Moreover, increases were registered in customs and excise duties (€18.2 million), licences, taxes and fines (€10.2 million) and value added tax (€9.8 million).
On the other hand, income tax registered a fall of €12.4 million.
Compared to January-March last year, higher spending was registered on recurrent expenditure and interest payments which was outweighed by lower capital outlays, resulting in a decline of €3.3 million in total expenditure.
Recurrent expenditure went up by €2.5 million, totalling €715.4 million. Increases were recorded in personal emoluments (€10.1 million) and operational and maintenance expenses (€4.1 million). Conversely, lower outlays were registered in programmes and initiatives by €7.5 million and contributions to government entities by €4.2 million
The major declines in the programmes and initiatives category were recorded in social security benefits (€9.4 million), feed-in-tariff (€5 million) and medicines and surgical materials (€3 million). These were partially offset by added outlays on the one-time additional bonus (€7 million) and child care for all (€3.1 million).
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the first three months of 2015 stood at €56.3 million from €53.8 million last year.
In addition, Government’s Capital Expenditure stood at €88.4 million from €96.7 million last year. This was mainly due to a lower equity injection to the national air carrier which was partially outweighed by added outlays on the acquisition of property for public purposes (€7.1 million).
At the end of March, central government debt stood at €5,365.5 million, up by €129.6 million, over the corresponding period last year.
This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks, which added €321.5 million. On the other hand, treasury bills and foreign loans went down by €159.1 million and €10.6 million, respectively. As a result of consolidation, higher holdings by government funds in Malta Government Stocks resulted in a reduction in debt of €27.6 million.
In a statement this afternoon, the government said the deficit was 11 per cent lower than in the same month last year and half that registered in the same period in 2013 when Simon Busuttil was deputy leader of the party in government.