OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2010. The Belarusian republican budget was short of around 200 billion Belarusian rubles (Br) of revenues in January 2010, Finance Minister Andrei Kharkovets said during an enlarged board session.

“The budget is some 200 billion rubles short of the target,” he said.

He said the post-crisis period would be characterized by a tense economic situation and state finance.

“The economic performance in January proves this. About 2 trillion rubles in revenues were received, the same as in late April,” Kharkovets said.

“Failures include VAT-base revenues, excise taxes and foreign trade taxes. The situation in foreign trade is clear, but VAT and excise results are alarming, as they show that the economy has not been growing fast enough,” Kharkovets added.

Belarus’ Finance Ministry posted a republican budget surplus of 500 billion rubles, or 0.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in January-December 2009.

Republican budget revenues amounted to 46.8 trillion rubles in 2009, or 103.3% of the adjusted target for the whole year (and 85.3% of the original target).

Republican budget expenditures reached 46.3 trillion rubles, 100.2% of the target for 2009.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had adjusted budget parameters for 2009 and changed the deficit-free nature of last year’s budget by introducing a 900 billion-ruble deficit by ordinance #670 dated December 31, 2009.