TALLINN - Finance Minister Aivar Soerd said Estonia's surplus revenue accumulated during 2005 should be used to beef up the national pension reserve after money needed for expenditure items carried over to the new year has been set aside. Estonia ran a budget surplus of 2.4 billion kroons (153 million euros) in 2005, tentative estimates by the Finance Ministry show.
"As a result of the budget policy decisions of last year, financing of state-funded pensions, or the first pillar of the pension system, improved. 113 million kroons of other tax receipts were channeled into the national pension insurance reserve, and another 100 million kroons with the budget for 2006. With the supplementary budget for 2005 the entire extra revenue earned in 2004 was put there," the minister said.
