Romania’s Government is still far from its target to increase the budget collection by RON 31 billion (EUR 6.8 billion) this year, said the Fiscal Council president Ionut Dumitru on Friday, reports local News.ro.

On Thursday, finance minister Viorel Stefan announced that the budget revenues collected from the beginning of the year until March 20 were higher by RON 20 million than the revenues recorded in the first quarter of 2016. He added that collection increased in March.

“The Government has estimated an advance of 13.9% in its budget collection this year, namely a plus of RON 31 billion (EUR 6.8 billion) compared to the previous year. Even if it manages to collect as much as it has estimated, it is very hard to believe that it will recover the shortfall recorded in the first two months,” said Dumitru.

In the first two months of 2017, the budget revenues totaled RON 34.9 billion and were 1.4% lower compared to the same period of 2016.

editor@romania-insider.com