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UPDATE 1-Mexican Congress approves 2008 budget revenue

Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:01pm EDT

(Adds details)

MEXICO CITY, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Mexico's Congress approved the 2008 budget revenue bill on Tuesday, injecting more cash into government coffers than initially projected because of more income from new taxes and higher oil price estimates.

The upper house Senate approved the revenue bill for next year at about 2.56 trillion pesos ($239 billion). The lower house of Congress had already given the bill the green light.

The spending side of the government's 2008 budget has to be approved by Congress by Nov. 15.

"I think that it is an encouraging amount, it is the result of fiscal reform, high oil prices," Finance Minister Agustin Carstens told reporters on Tuesday.

The revenue bill is based on a calculation of $49 a barrel for Mexican crude exports, or 5.15 percent higher than the government-submitted proposal.

Mexico depends heavily on oil exports to fund more than one-third of the federal budget.

Mexican legislators recently broke a months-long deadlock and approved a tax reform bill, which includes new taxes for companies as well as a tax break for state-owned oil monopoly Pemex.

($1 = 10.718 pesos)



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