Fiscal revenues exceeded those from customs for first time in country's history - Finance Minister says

Chisinau, 1 February /MOLDPRES/- Historical moment in revenues of state budget: for the first time in the history of the country (at least, since 1998), the monthly domestic receipts, administered by the State Tax Service, have exceeded those from the customs, Finance Minister Ion Chicu said.

The increase in tax revenues was driven by better tax administration, and tightening of penalties for tax evasion, experts said.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the State Tax Service accumulated to the state budget in January this year 1,301,885.7 thousand lei, up by 11.4% than in the past year, while the Customs Service collected 1,234,986.9 thousand lei. Budget revenues in the first month of the year exceeded by 177 million lei or 7.7 per cent those in January 2018.

Although the facilities offered by the government to the income tax of private people and social insurance will bring financial losses to the national public budget, the tax revenues will be higher than was originally planned, economist Veaceslav Ionita said.