German Finance Minister Hans Eichel is planning extra measures to try to bring the nation's 2005 deficit below an EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
The measures may include cuts in subsidies for commuters and the introduction of a levy on extra payments for night and Sunday shifts, according to a preview of a report in Sunday's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, which did not name any sources. Exemptions for some manufacturing companies from ecological taxes could also be scrapped, the newspaper said.
A finance ministry spokeswoman told Reuters on Saturday there were no current plans to introduce the measures cited in Welt am Sonntag.
Germany is in danger of breaching the European Union's budget cap for a fourth straight year next year as sluggish economic growth and high unemployment crimp tax revenues.
Eichel said this week Germany would do everything it could to bring its 2005 deficit back below 3 percent and that any decision on what additional action might be necessary would be taken in coming months.
Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm, current president of the EU's council of finance ministers, said this week Germany and three other members of the 12-nation eurozone risked busting the deficit limit with unchanged policies.
A separate report in Saturday's Berliner Zeitung newspaper, said Germany's total 2004 and 2005 tax revenues will be about 5.5 billion euros ($6.95 billion) less than estimated in May.
However, this would represent a smaller shortfall than Eichel had feared amid stronger-than-expected state and local authority tax income, the newspaper said.
The report cited unidentified officials charged with preparing twice-yearly tax revenue estimates next due for publication on November 4.
The finance ministry spokeswoman said the report was "speculation". Federal tax income has been hurt above all by a drop in revenue from mineral oil taxes and tobacco taxes, the paper quoted the officials as saying.
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