Budgetary revenue in Q1 amounts to EUR 3.29 bln

Budgetary revenue in the first quarter of 2011 amounted to HRK 24.18 billion, down 4.3 per cent on the year, while expenditure dropped three per cent to HRK 29.6 billion, according to Finance Ministry preliminary figures released on its website on Tuesday.

The ministry says that unlike last year, there was no revenue from emergency tax and the payment of oil company INA's excise debt, and that lower income tax rates were introduced in July.

The ministry says one cannot claim based on revenues in the first quarter that the economy has recovered, but that there is a tendency towards that and that Croatia is getting unstuck from the bottom.

Excluding shipbuilding, exports in the first quarter of 2011 saw a five per cent rise on the year and in March the labour market showed signs of recovery.

The decline of budgetary revenue was mainly owing to a decline in tax revenue. March had the highest impact of the decline, with revenue at HRK 8.27 billion, down HRK 948 from the same time in 2010.

Tax revenues in the first three months of 2011 were HRK 13.58 billion, down 7.2 per cent on the year.

The biggest tax revenue, from VAT, brought in HRK 8.54 billion, up five per cent from the first three months of 2010.

In March, however, VAT revenue dropped HRK 245 million on the year, to HRK 2.85 billion.

The biggest tax revenue decline was recorded in profit tax, which brought in HRK 1.42 billion, down nearly 25 per cent from the first quarter of 2010.

Excise tax revenue saw a decline of 15.1 per cent, amounting to HRK 2.28 billion.

Revenue from other taxes was HRK 96.6 million, as against nearly HRK 690 million in the first quarter of 2010 owing to the emergency tax.

Revenue from social contributions in the first quarter of 2011 amounted to HRK 9.3 billion, down 0.5 per cent on the year.