Quarterly figures in black

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 2

Quarterly figures in black

By

PATTRICK SMELLIE

in Wellington

The Government showed a surplus of $759.6 million on its spending and revenue for the first three months of the financial year, said the Minister of Finance, Mr Caygill, yesterday. The surplus for the September quarter compares with a deficit for the same period last year of $78.4M. The change is not regarded as significant at this point in the financial year, particularly as the balance date for Government accounting has changed for the first time this year, along

with reporting requirements for Government departments. Total expenditure for the period was down 13 per cent over the same three months last year to $5,591 billion. This was largely because of State-owned enterprise early loan repayments totalling more than SBOOM. Only three areas of spending showed any increase for the period — education (up 7 per

cent), social services (up 10 per cent) and transport (up 8 per cent). Reflecting some of the impact of public debt repayments, debtservicing costs were down 5 per cent ($56.4M) to $1.1868 for the September quarter. Tax revenue receipts showed personal income tax from individuals and provisional taxpayers fell 3 per cent to $2.88 and 20 per cent to $150.8M, respec-

tively. Mr Caygill said revenue was tracking satisfactorily against Budget forecasts. Receipts from the new withholding tax on interest and dividend payments had yet to show up in the figures. GST receipts for the quarter were up 9 per cent to $1.2458. Total tax and other receipts collected at that point in the financial year amounted to $6.3508, almost unchanged from the $6.3418 collected in the same three months last year.