South Korea's national tax revenue declined by about 300 billion won (US$281 million) on-year in the January-August period due to the slowing economic recovery, raising worries that the government might face tougher income conditions, government data showed Tuesday.

According to the data provided by the finance ministry, the government had collected 136.6 trillion won in national taxes during the period, down 300 billion won from the same period a year earlier. 

The amount represented 63.1 percent of what the government aims to collect throughout this year. The ratio is 4.7 percentage points lower than the 67.8 percent tallied a year before. The gap became larger than July's 3.2 percentage points.

This indicates that the tax collection situation is set to be worse than last year when the government took in 8.5 trillion won less than expected in tax income. 

During a parliamentary audit last week, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan admitted that the tax revenue shortfall for this year might be "a little bit larger" than last year but ruled out hiking tax rates in order to make up for the gap. 

During the January-August period, the government's gross income came to 230.8 trillion won, while its total expenditure was 240.8 trillion won, according to the data. 

As of end-August, the debt owed by the central bank rose to an all-time high of 511.1 trillion won from the previous month's 7.8 trillion won, the data showed. (Yonhap)