Analysts had forecast the government's tax take at 59.29 billion pesos, according to the median in a Reuters poll in which estimates ranged from 58.60 billion to 60.30 billion pesos.

Growth in Latin America's No. 3 economy slowed sharply last year after expanding 8.9 percent in 2011 and the pace of tax revenue growth cooled somewhat, although it continues to be high.

Much of the revenue growth can be explained by high inflation, however, which private economists estimate at about 25 percent a year. The government's widely discredited data put last year's consumer inflation at 10.8 percent.

Argentina's tax revenue totaled 47.28 billion pesos in February 2012.