The first 76 days of 2006 have been good to the Dominican Treasury. It has received the princely sum of RD$35.40 billion, just under half a billion per day, as of 17 March. However, this is 6% below what had been budgeted, according to the Ministry of Finance. Nonetheless, it was 19.3% above last year’s numbers. According to the report from the Ministry of Finance, the money covered the government’s expenses for the period and permitted a budget surplus of RD$6.98 billion. The Internal Revenue Department provided 57.2% (RD$20.25 billion) of all the monies collected by the government, and the Customs Department provided an additional RD$11.03 billion.