In April, the fiscal deficit (government revenue minus expenses) represented 1.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Tax revenues for the fourth month of the year show a growth slightly lower than the previous period. The change rate accumulated to April 2017 is 7.2%, while in 2016 it was 7.3%.
At the end of the first quarter of the year, the performance of the income and earnings tax rate, which maintains its double-digit growth for the third consecutive year, stands out. As of April 2017, its growth reached 13.3%, which generated an increase in the share of this tax in tax revenues, rising from 30.4% in 2015 to 34.9% in 2017.
Contrary to April 2016, when the rate of investment growth decreased by 33.8%, by 2017 it showed an increase of 45.6%. This high dynamism in capital expenditure accounts for 24% of the increase in total expenditure.
As of April 2017, transfers grew 9.2% while in 2016 they stood at 5.9%.
Transfers grow as a result of the allocation of resources to specific constitutional and legal destinations, which must be allocated with resources from the National Budget. Among the main transfers are those of Fodesaf, the FEES and pensions charged to the National Budget,”
said the Finance Ministry in a statement.
In addition, the payment of interest shows a significant slowdown. The accumulation to April 2016 increased by 19.2%, while at the end of April 2017 it increased by 10.1%.
Referring to fiscal figures in April, the first vice president and finance minister, Helio Fallas, said that despite the good results, it is urgent to modernize fiscal legislation, as other countries in Latin America have done, through the approval of the projects of VAT and Rent that are in the Legislative Assembly.
According to Fallas, the structural problems have essentially been mitigated by administrative actions, but are insufficient.