South Korea's national tax revenue continued to rise in the first six months of the year amid a steady pace of growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy, the finance ministry said Thursday.

The government collected 137.9 trillion won ($121.2 billion) in taxes in the January-June period, up 12.3 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

It accounts for some 54.9 percent of the tax revenue of 251.1 trillion won earmarked for 2017, including some 11 trillion won worth of a supplementary budget that was approved by parliament last month.

The first-half percentage is 1 percentage point higher than the same period last year.

Revenues from value added tax rose 2.4 trillion won to 33.1 trillion won, and income tax revenues gained 2.4 trillion won to 37.9 trillion won in the six months through June.

Corporate tax collection totaled 33.5 trillion won, up 2.4 trillion won from a year earlier.

The South Korean government has been enjoying brisk tax income since last year when the total earnings reached 242.6 trillion won, exceeding the original target by 9.8 trillion won and increasing by a record 24.7 trillion won from a year earlier. (Yonhap)