by Stefania Fumo

ROME, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Italy's public debt topped 2.302 trillion euros (2.72 trillion U.S. dollars) in March, breaking a record high of 2.3 trillion in July 2017, the Bank of Italy reported Tuesday.

Public debt rose by 15.9 billion euros in March compared to February. Meanwhile the tax take in the same month totalled 28.5 billion euros, unchanged compared to the same period in 2017, the Italian central bank said on Twitter.

The news came as government-formation talks continued between the two relative winners of Italy's last general election: the right-wing League party and the populist Five Star Movement, who campaigned on promises that they would introduce drastic tax cuts and generous welfare measures, breaking European Union (EU) budget rules if necessary.

"In this economic phase in my opinion Italy needs to put more money in citizens' pockets," anti-euro economist and League MP Claudio Borghi told reporters in televised comments.

"If on the other side, we have someone telling us that we need to take that money out instead of putting it in, we're not going anywhere," Borghi added in reference to the EU.

The electoral promises made by the two parties found willing believers among voters in Italy, where many still do not benefit from the country's lackluster economic recovery.

The League made huge inroads in the wealthier, more industrialized North with promises of a 15-20 percent flat tax in a country where the income tax burden averages 40 percent.

The Five Star Movement made massive gains in the chronically impoverished South, where unemployment is three times the national rate of around 11 percent, with its flagship pledge of a 780-euro monthly basic income for the poor and the unemployed.

Any new government planning to keep both these promises will have only one way to pay for them -- to borrow more money and thereby drive up Italy's public debt, which is the second-highest in the eurozone after that of Greece.

Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 131.8 percent at the end of 2017, compared to 64.1 percent in Germany and 97 percent in France, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars)