For the first four months of this year, the government netted €161,784,022 from national insurance contributions and €2,722,844 from eco-contributions, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech told Labour MP Noel Farrugia in reply to two parliamentary questions.

The minister could not put an exact figure on what the NI revenue should have been because this would be known between February and March 2012, when employers would send employees their FSS documents.

Neither could a figure be put on dues from the self-employed because payments due would be based on what they would have declared for 2010.

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