Tax revenues in the period January-August 2024 amounted to €43.09 billion, an increase of €1.99 billion or 4.8% compared to the target included in the introductory report of the 2024 Budget, according to provisional data, on a modified cash basis, published by the Ministry of Finance. The excess tax revenues calculated fiscally in the year 2024 amount to €1.34 billion.
For the period January to August 2024, there is a surplus in the State budget balance of €1.048 billion compared to a deficit target of €2.774 billion included for the corresponding period of 2024 in the introductory report of the 2024 Budget and a deficit of €92 million in the corresponding period of 2023. The primary result on a cash-adjusted basis was a surplus of €7.571 billion, against a target of a primary surplus of €3.316 billion and a primary surplus of €5.596 billion for the same period in 2023.
The Ministry of Finance states that part of the difference in tax revenue collection amounting to EUR 647 million is accounted for in the fiscal result for the year 2023, while an amount relating to the deferral of transfer payments to the OKA amounting to EUR 1.854 billion and an amount for expenditure on equipment programs amounting to EUR 634 million (i.e. a total of EUR 2.488 billion) does not affect the result in fiscal terms.
Excluding the above-mentioned amounts, the overrun of the primary surplus target of the State budget for the period January-August amounts to 1.120 billion euros.
Therefore, as explained by the Ministry of Finance, the primary result in fiscal terms differs from the result in cash terms. It should be noted that the former refers to the primary result of the Central Administration and not to the General Administration as a whole, which also includes the fiscal results of Legal Entities and the OTA and OKA subsectors.
Furthermore, the above concerns the comparison in relation to the objectives of the introductory report of the 2024 Budget. During the preparation of the Stability Programme in April 2024, it was already taken into account that an amount of EUR 1.238 billion of base budget value resulting from an updated forecast of tax revenues for 2024, is directed to the increase in expenditure of the ordinary Budget of the General Administration bodies, as well as of the National section of the Public Investment Programme.
The recipe
In the period January – August 2024, the value of net revenues of the State Budget amounted to 45.137 billion euros, representing an increase of 232 million euros or 0.52% compared to the target included for the corresponding period in the introductory report of the 2024 Budget, although the objectives of the introductory report included: a) the collection in March of an amount of 1,797 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RAF), the majority of which, i.e. the amount of 1,687 million euros, had been collected in December 2023 and an additional amount of 159 million euros was collected in January 2024 and b) the collection in June of a price of 1,350 million euros of the concession contract for financing, operation, maintenance and exploitation services of the Egnatia Odos Motorway and the three vertical road axes, signed in 03/29/2024. The next steps of the process until the payment of the price should be completed in the coming months.
Tax revenues, as mentioned above, amounted to €43.092 billion, an increase of €1.989 billion or 4.8% compared to the target included in the 2024 Budget report. This superior performance is the result of the better performance of personal and corporate income taxes from the previous year, which were collected in instalments until the end of February 2024 (the Ministry of Finance notes that an estimated amount of €647 million is accounted for in the fiscal result for the year 2023), as well as the better performance in tax collection in the current year. Thus, the excess tax revenue that is accounted for in fiscal terms in 2024 amounts to €1.342 billion.
The Ministry of Finance notes that the above concerns the comparison in relation to the Budget targets. In the preparation of the Stability Programme, in April 2024, an increase in tax revenues of 1,238 million euros was already taken into account, which is intended to increase the expenditure for the year 2024 of the Ordinary Budget of the General Administration bodies, as well as the National arm of the Public Investment Programme, as reflected in the Stability Programme.
Revenue returns totaled €4.499 billion, an increase of €41 million over the target (€4.457 billion).
Revenue from the Public Investment Programme (PIP) amounted to 3.147 billion euros, an increase of 569 million euros in relation to the target (2.578 billion euros).
The exact distribution between the State Budget revenue categories will be carried out with the publication of the final bulletin.
The image in August
In particular, in August 2024, the total net revenues of the State Budget amounted to 5.950 billion euros, a reduction of 631 million euros compared to the monthly target.
Tax revenues amounted to 6.226 billion euros, a reduction of 201 million euros or 3.1% compared to the budget target, which is estimated to be associated with the increase in income tax collection, mainly from legal entities, in the previous month, associated with the deadline for submitting tax returns. .
Revenue returns totaled €600 million, an increase of €37 million over target (€563 million).
Revenue from the Public Investment Budget (PDE) amounted to 143 million euros, 376 million euros below the target (519 million euros).
The expenses
State Budget expenditure for the period January-August 2024 amounted to 44.089 billion euros and is reduced by 3.590 billion euros compared to the target (47.679 billion euros), which is included in the introductory report of the 2024 Budget. It also increased, compared to the same period in 2023, by 878 million euros, mainly due to the increase in interest payments.
In the Ordinary Budget, payments are down by EUR 3.291 billion compared to the target. This change is mainly due to the deferral of transfer payments to the OKA of EUR 1.854 billion, as well as costs related to equipment programmes worth EUR 634 million, which do not affect the fiscal result. Conversely, i.e. incrementally compared to the target, interest payments on public debt servicing increased by EUR 465 million.
According to the Ministry of Finance, notable transfer payments include: the payment of €130 million by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food to ELGA for compensation of farms affected by flooding due to the DANIEL-ELIAS disasters in September 2023 as well as for related land improvement projects, the grant of €225 million by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport to the transport agencies (OASA, OASTH and OSE), the grant of €276 million by the Ministry of Health to the National Central Authority for Health Procurement (EKAPY) to cover the expenses for the supply of medicines for the needs of the hospitals of the National Health Service and the National Health Service. Papageorgiou and the grant of €98 million to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to cover their operating costs.
Payments in the investment expenditure sector amounted to 6.549 billion euros, 299 million euros short of the target.
