VICTORIA — Finance Minister Mike de Jong says British Columbia is on target to balance its books this year.
The minister says the latest financial numbers reflecting the first six months of the fiscal year point to a projected surplus of $444 million.
The Liberal government originally forecast a surplus of $184 million when the budget was tabled last February.
The minister says revenues are up by $194 million from the government's forecast in its first quarterly report.
Natural resource revenues are down, but he says but tax revenues are up for retail sales and new vehicles and federal transfer payments have also increased.
De Jong also says the debt is forecast to be down more than $1 billion from the original budget forecast of $64.7 billion.