Tax earnings for January rose by around 400 billion won (US$354.2 million) compared to the year before mainly due to a rise in property transactions and more import duties, the finance ministry said Thursday.

The total amount collected in the one-month period reached 25.7 trillion won, equal to 11.6 percent of the 221.1 trillion won the government is set to collect this year, the latest Monthly Public Finance report said.

Taxes on income, including transfer taxes on housing transactions, import duties on consumer goods and taxes on stocks rose, while sluggish domestic consumption caused corporate and value added tax earnings to fall.

Despite the rise in revenue, the rate in which taxes are collected fell 0.1 percentage point when compared to 2014. In January last year, the government brought in 25.2 trillion won, or 11.7 percent of the year's budget target.

A slower pace in tax collection can lead to revenue shortfalls down the line. Last year, tax collected fell shy of the budget target by 10.9 trillion won.

The ministry said of the 313.3 trillion won in projects that the government will fund this year, 54.8 trillion won has been spent as of late February. This is equivalent to 17.5 percent of the annual spending target.

The government has said it will frontload about 58 percent of this year's budget in the first half to bolster the economy, which has been slow in making a recovery.

State-owned assets were valued at 938.9 trillion won as of late last month, up 1.1 trillion won from January. Earnings from the assets reached 252.7 billion won, according to the report. (Yonhap)