Tax revenue continues to rise, with figures for the first quarter of 2016 outperforming last year's already positive results, the Finance Ministry said today.

Figures released by the National Statistics Office show that tax revenue increased by €36.3 million over the same period of last year. Income tax revenues recorded the highest increase, rising by €25.3 million year-on-year, with revenue from social security contributions (€22.4 million) the second-highest contributor

The NSO figures showed that the shortfall in the government's consolidated fund grew by €38 million over the previous year, as recurrent revenue registered a decline of €29.8 million whilst total expenditure increased by €8.2 million. 

A Finance Ministry statement attributed the revenue increases to high employment, higher wages and higher business profits. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said the figures showed "that we are succeeding in consistently increasing revenue collection without increasing taxes.”

Revenue from customs and excise duties, licenses, taxes and fines as well as VAT all recorded marked increases.

The decreased grants component of non-tax revenue figures reflected the ending of the EU's 2007-2013 financing period and the transition to the 2014-2020 EU funding program, the ministry statement said. 

It said that reductions would be neutralized by lower EU funded capital expenditure, pointing to a €36.3 million decrease in capital expenditure for the first three months over the previous year.

During the same period, recurrent expenditure increased by €42.7 million over last year with the main contributors being contributions to government entities which increased by €21.8 million.