BERLIN (AFX) - Finance minister Hans Eichel said he is "not pessimistic" about the taxation proceeds Germany will receive this year, despite the slowing of the German economy.
"We will have reliable data only in May on the next tax proceeds estimate," Eichel said in an interview with the mass circulation Bild Zeitung. "I am not pessimistic", he added
Eichel said that supplementary spending on the effects of the BSE crisis will have to be balanced by savings in other areas. The government has no intention to increase VAT, he said.
He said that his main aim remains to reduce new borrowings to nil by the year 2006.