German municipalities and city-states earned 9.9 billion euros ($12.5 billion) in excise taxes in the first quarter, 44 million euros more than in the same period last year, Handelsblatt reported, citing data from the Federal Statistics Office.

The Association of German Cities and Towns had earlier estimated a “significant” decline in tax revenue, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cornelius Rahn in Frankfurt at crahn2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net