The Brazilian social security system registered revenue of 14.2 billion reais (6.3 billion U.S. dollars) in March, up 7.7 percent from February and 10.6 percent from the same period last year, Brazil's Social Security Secretariat said on Monday.
This is the second highest monthly revenue, only lower than the amount registered in December 2008.
Brazil's Social Security Secretary Helmut Schwarzer said that two factors contributed to the good results in March.
The first was the fact that 531,000 small-sized companies joined the government's simplified tax collection system. The second factor is that a stable job market in February boosted businessmen's confidence and paved the way to even more employment in March.
Despite the high revenues, Brazil's social security system registered a deficit of 3.1 billion reais (1.38 billion U.S. dollars) in March, 12.1 percent higher than the same period in 2008.
The deficit was mainly due to increased benefit payments and the recent rise in minimum wage in Brazil, according to government officials.
In the first quarter of 2009, the social security system registered an accumulated deficit of 12 billion reais (5.35 billion U.S. dollars), 16.3 percent higher than the same period of last year.