National Tax Revenue Exceeds 60 Trillion Won by Q3... Fiscal Balance Still in 'Deficit'

Financial Trends

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] It has been revealed that national tax revenue collected up to the third quarter was nearly 60 trillion won more than last year. However, the fiscal balance still shows a deficit of about 75 trillion won, and the national debt (central government) stands at approximately 927 trillion won.

According to the fiscal trends announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 16th, national tax revenue from January to September this year totaled 274.5 trillion won, an increase of 59.8 trillion won compared to the same period last year. The progress rate against the government's annual national tax revenue forecast (314.3 trillion won) is 87.3%.

National tax revenue for September alone was 26.3 trillion won, up 4.1 trillion won from the same month last year. The increase was larger than the previous month (600 billion won) due to the impact of corporate tax and others.

All three major tax categories?income tax, corporate tax, and value-added tax?saw significant increases. Income tax collected from January to September was 86.9 trillion won, up 21.8 trillion won from the same period last year. Corporate tax increased by 15.1 trillion won to 65.2 trillion won, and value-added tax rose by 8.8 trillion won to 56.5 trillion won. This is analyzed to be due to the continued economic recovery, a favorable asset market, and an increase in the number of employed persons.

With the improvement in tax revenue, the fiscal deficit in September showed a significant improvement. The integrated fiscal balance (total revenue - total expenditure) recorded a deficit of 29.6 trillion won up to the third quarter. This is an improvement of 50.8 trillion won compared to the same period last year (deficit of 80.5 trillion won), marking the largest improvement in the past 10 years.

The managed fiscal balance, which excludes funds from the integrated fiscal balance to show the actual fiscal condition, showed a deficit of 74.7 trillion won. Although this is an improvement of 33.8 trillion won compared to one year ago, it still represents a large deficit compared to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.

National debt based on the central government debt balance recorded 926.6 trillion won. In September, about 12.4 trillion won of treasury bonds were repaid, reducing the central government debt balance by approximately 600 billion won compared to the previous month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.