Government budget lacks 200bn rubles in January

The Ministry of Finance of Belarus has founded missing of large tax revenues in January.

Budget arrears caused by unpaid taxes amounts to 200 billion rubles (around 70 million dollars) in January 2010, said minister of finance Andrei Kharkavets at a sitting of the Ministry’s board in Minsk on February 4, BelaPAN reports.

“Situation in economic and financial spheres of the country remains strained after the crisis,” he said. According to Kharkavets, financial outcomes of January 2010 demonstrate this. 2 trillion rubles, which is equal to payments of April 2009, were delivered to the governmental budget, incomes funds are not counted.

“The budget arrears are about 200 billion rubles. Budget revenues from values added taxes, excise duties, tax incomes from foreign economic activity are lower than expected,” the head of the Ministry of Finance stated. “If failure of foreign economic activity can be explained, results of VATs and excise duties are caused by insufficient rates of economic growth.” According to Kharkavets, this is an “alarm signal” for all level of the budget system.

“Formation of the tax bas should be analyzed. We are to find out its drawbacks and make proposals to improve the situation,” Kharkavets emphasized.