UK income tax receipts set to miss target

London - British income tax receipts will probably fall short of the government's target for the current financial year despite a surge in employment, the head of the country's independent budget forecasters was quoted as saying.

A combination of growth in low-paid jobs and a steady rise in the amount of income people can earn before paying income tax meant the shortfall was likely, Robert Chote, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, told the BBC on Monday.

"We've been getting fewer pence of revenue coming in for every pound of wages and salaries that's generated. From the perspective of the public finances that's not particularly good news," Chote told the broadcaster.

Britain's public finances have deteriorated in recent months, hurt by slow growth in income tax receipts. Finance minister George Osborne has made reduction of the country's public sector deficit a priority and a central point of his Conservative Party's pitch ahead of a national election in May.