TUNIS, Jan 4 (KUNA) -- Tunisian Minister of State at the Finance Ministry Salim Besbes said Friday there was no reason for concern over the budget deficit of the government inability to pay salaries this month.

The financial position of the state is satisfactory since the state budget has enough liquidity to pay all costs by January 20, the date of salary payment for the civil servants, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) quoted Besbes as saying.

The liquidity is expected to grew by that time due to seizure of ill-gotten funds amounting to 600 million Tunisian dinars (some USD 386.16 million) and taxes amounting to TND 100 million (USD 64.36 million), he affirmed.

The senior official made the remarks in the wake of warnings by some economists and financial experts that the available liquidity amounted to TND 126 million by Friday, January 4, 2013, while the salaries cost TND 600 million.

Besbes added that the revenues and hard currency reserves of the budget boomed remarkably in December thanks to the transfer of loans from the World Bank and the African Development Bank and the intra-bank debt settlement.

However, he did not comment on the government ability to pay the salaries of the next months.