In 2017, the government registered a surplus of €182.7 million, with revenue up by €484.2 million compared with a year earlier, while total expenditure only increased by €310.4 million.
This resulted in a positive change in the Government’s Consolidated Fund by €173.8 million, the National Statistics Office said on Thursday.
In 2017, recurrent revenue was recorded at €4,291.2 million, up from €3,807.0 million last year. The comparative increase of 12.7 per cent was primarily the result of higher Income Tax and Value Added Tax which both increased by €169.2 million and €96.4 million respectively.
- Social Security +€70.7 million
- Fees of Office +€41.2 million, comprising an increase of €34.1 million related to the Individual Investor Programme
- Grants +€36.9 million
- Customs and Excise Duties +€25.6 million
- Licences, Taxes and Fines +€21.5 million
- Reimbursements +€16.8 million
- Miscellaneous Receipts +€2.3 million
- Dividends on Investment +€2.2 million
- Rents +€1.4 million
Compared to 2016, total expenditure stood at €4,108.5 million up from €3,798.1 million due to added outlays on recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure which outweighed lower spending on interest payments.
Recurrent expenditure stood at €3,543.3 million from €3,264.3 million last year. The main contributors to this increase were Programmes and Initiatives and Personal Emoluments with a rise of €196.2 million and €45.9 million respectively.
The Programmes and Initiatives category involved added outlays due to:
- Social security benefits +€36.2 million
- Higher EU Own Resources +€21.5 million
- State contribution +€20.5 million (which also features as revenue)
- Health Concession Agreements +€17.5 million
- Jobsplus Programmes +€11.8 million
- Treasury Pensions +€10.8 million
- Contingency Reserve +€9.8 million
- Medicines and Surgical materials +€8.8 million
- EU Presidency 2017 +€7.0 million
- Residential private care +€5.8 million
- Child care for all +€4.2 million
- Solid waste management +€3.6 million
- Church schools +€3.0 million
- Feed in tariff +€2.9 million
- Public social partnership +€2.4 million
- Allocation to local councils +€2.0 million
- Street lighting +€1.6 million
- Energy support measures +€1.0 million
Contributions to Government Entities and Operational and Maintenance Expenses increased by €23.8 million and €13 million respectively.
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs stood at €215.1 million, down from €223.5 million last year.
Government’s capital expenditure witnessed an increase of €39.9 million, and was recorded at €350.2 million.
- Investment incentives +€11.2 million
- Restoration of Triton fountain +€4.5 million
- EU Cohesion Fund 2014-2020 +€4.2 million
- EU Internal Security Borders and VISA +€4.0 million
- Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation +€3.8 million
- Tomorrow schools +€3.4 million
- Road construction improvements +€2.8 million
- Integrated health information system +€1.6 million
- Road construction improvements +€1.5 million
On the other hand lower outlays related to film industry incentives (€9.2 million) were recorded.