DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland collected 3.7 percent more tax in February than in the same month last year, thanks to growth in value-added tax (VAT) receipts and income tax, the finance ministry said on Monday.
The Irish economy has been the best performing in the European Union since 2014, lifting the tax take to a record level last year even as the government gradually unwinds some of the increases in levies introduced during the financial crisis.
Tax revenue last month was 8.1 billion euros, up 3.7 percent or 293 million euros on last February.
Total net voted expenditure, or spending by government departments and agencies and from the Social Insurance Fund and National Training Fund, came to 7.96 billion euros by the end of February, an increase of 8.1 percent year-on-year. But it remained 2 percent lower than the government's start-of-year plans.
The exchequer recorded a surplus of 139 million euros in February, compared to a 217 million euro surplus a year ago, the finance ministry said.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Peter Graff)
