For the first time in November 2009, Public Revenue Office collected more revenues in relation to the same period last year, Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski, announced after the meeting with PRO Director, Goran Trajkovski.
 
He pointed out that at the meeting in the PRO, they concluded that upward trend of revenue collection was observed in November.
 
– This points out to the fact that Macedonian economy gradually recovers and PRO efficiency regarding revenue collection improves. The Government and myself, as Minister of Finance, remain committed to further improvement of the performance and efforts, through efficient revenue collection, to ensure the funds projected in the Budget for this, as well as next years, Stavreski said.
 
Asked if higher revenue collection in November was due to forced collection from the 5,600 blocked companies, Stavreski said that, as a Minister of Finance, he was fully supporting PRO activities aimed at revenue collection.
 
– Revenue and tax collection is an integral part of the activities of government institutions, since failure to realize the collection means that some companies would be favoured against the entities paying their liabilities on regular basis. Line has to be drawn and creditors have to be protected, not only the debtors who represent unfair competition, Stavreski said, pointing out that companies were granted incentives by debt rescheduling and interest write offs so as to settle their liabilities.
 
Stavreski precisely explained that it was still early to make any forecasts whether revenues projected in the last 2009 Supplementary Budget would be realized.
 
– Things are changing from month to month. Let’s wait for November to pass, so we can be able to provide you more precise answers on whether projections in the Budget would be realized, Stavreski said.(MIA)