On 13 November 2013, Finance Minister of Georgia, Nodar Khaduri, presented the draft budget of 2014 to the Parliament. MP from the Parliamentary Minority, Zurab Melikishvili, addressed the Minister with a question: “Do you confirm that tax revenues of [the first] ten months of 2012 exceed those of [the same] ten months of 2013 by GEL 96 million?”

Nodar Khaduri disagreed with the MP’s statement and asserted: “As of today [13 November], accrued taxes exceed those of the same period of the last year.”

FactCheck inquired about the actual statistics on tax revenues and set out to establish which one of the abovementioned two statements was consistent with the truth.

We verified data on tax revenues of the state budget on the website of the Ministry of Finance. Tax revenues totalled GEL 5,156.8 million in the first ten months of 2012 while in the same period of 2013 the total amount of accrued taxes was GEL 5,060.9 million. Accordingly, the amount of taxes channelled to the budget in the first ten months of 2012 exceeds those of the same period of 2013 by GEL 95.9 million. The indicated statistical data confirms the statement of the MP.

Nodar Khaduri claims that the amount of taxes collected by 13 November 2013 exceeds the volume of taxes accrued in the same period of the last year. In accordance with the public information requested from the Treasury Service of the Ministry of Finance, taxes collected from 1 January 2012 to 13 November 2012 totalled GEL 5,298,453,689.9 whereas in the period between 1 January 2013 and 13 November 2013 the taxes amounted to GEL 5,196,612,564.72. The total volume of taxes collected this year by 13 November was roughly GEL 101 million less than the taxes accrued in the same period of the last year.

Conclusion

Tax revenues totalled GEL 5,156.8 million in the first ten months of 2012 while in the same period of 2013 the total amount of accrued taxes was GEL 5,060.9 million. Accordingly, the amount of taxes channelled to the budget in the first ten months of 2012 exceeds those of the same period of 2013 by GEL 95.9 million.

Bearing in mind the abovementioned data we conclude that Zurab Melikishvili’s statement: “Tax revenues of [the first] ten months of 2012 exceed those of [the same] ten months of 2013 by GEL 96 million”, is TRUE.

The total sum of tax revenues channelled to the budget from 1 January 2013 to 13 November 2013 amounted to GEL 5,196,612,564.72 million. In the same period of 2012 the same revenues totalled 5,298,453,689.9 which surpasses the indicator of 2013 by GEL 101 million.

Based upon this data we conclude that Nodar Khaduri’s statement: “As of today [13 November], accrued taxes exceed those of the last year,” is a LIE.