Higher than forecast tax receipts and lower welfare payments have given the Manx government a bigger than expected revenue budget surplus of £30.7m.

Detailed accounts outlined in the government’s ’Light Blue’ book, due to be presented to Tynwald this month, show income was significantly higher than expected at £1,067m - £20.5m better than budget and £31.1m better than last year.

Expenditure, meanwhile, was £5.5m lower than the revised budget even after supplementary votes of £4m for the overspending Health and Home Affairs departments.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan (pictured) said the Light Blue book delivered ’another strong message of financial control, supporting the theme of the 2019/20 Budget, one of confidence’.

But he warned: ’Whilst these results give cause for optimism, we must not be complacent, particularly given international events.

’There continues to be significant financial pressures on our front line services and we must continue to have an eye for the longer term.’

He said the public finances benefited from the level of diversification in the Manx economy with the e-Gaming, insurance and ICT sectors all performing well.

Some £238m was collected in income tax which was £14.5m better than budget and £4.8m up on last year.

ITIP and resident tax were up on budget by £16m. But company tax receipts were down by £2.4m. National insurance income was £7m better than budget. Other income sources were better than budget by £6.8m.

Most departments remained within their revenue budgets and the extra £4m for the DHSC and £1.6m for the DHA were funded, without drawing further on the reserves thanks to reduced spending elsewhere and the improved income.

Mr Cannan acknowledged that government continues to draw on reserves to meet operational commitments - including £35m from the Public Service Employee Pensions Reserve to meet pension costs, although this is £5m less than planned.

Internal funds closed at £4.9m higher than their opening position following transfers in of £12m and the lower than budgeted draw-downs.

At the end of March 2019 the market value of the externally invested funds was £1,749m, or £1,873m including the investment in the Steam Packet Company.

Spending on NI funded benefits was lower than budget by £4.7m mainly due to retirement pensions which were £6.3m lower.

Actual expenditure was £5.5m better than budget which was mainly due to the reduced benefits expenditure.

And this achieved a surplus of £30.7m against a revised budget forecast of £4.6m.

However, it was not all good news.

Employee costs including agency staff were worse than the revised budget by £3.5m. Total employee costs were £13.6m higher than last year - representing a 3.7% increase due to the payment of pay awards including arrears.

Capital spending for the year was just £60.8m versus an original budget of £116.8m. This was due to the delay with larger schemes including Douglas Promenade, Liverpool landing stage, airport x-ray machines upgrade and housing schemes.