Tax discount contains drop in revenues

The discount for the timely payment of taxes helped prevent budget revenues from collapsing in April, although they did post a reduction of 1.35 billion euros in the January-April period, according to data announced by the State General Accounting Office on Monday.

It attributed the drop in revenues to "the impact from the measures taken to tackles the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic." Value-added tax, special consumption taxes and income tax recorded the biggest losses in the year's first four months, and this is expected to be recorded in May too. At the same time state spending came in more than €1 billion over target, of which €720 million concerned the special compensations.

The official data showed a primary deficit of €1.5 billion in January-April against an original target for a primary surplus of €783 million, and a primary surplus of €1.46 billion at...