Tax revenues in fiscal 2001 came to 47.943 trillion yen, falling 1.681 trillion yen short of government projections, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report Thursday.
The shortfall was blamed on a decrease in revenues from corporate and consumption taxes. Total revenues to March 31 were down 5.5 percent from the previous year.
It was the first time the figure fell below official projections in three years, despite the government's downward revision of its estimate by 1.1 trillion yen to 49.625 trillion yen.