The Government of Jamaica continues to collect more than targeted from taxpayers.

For the period of April to July 2021, total revenues and grants amounted to $225.53 billion, which is $17.26 billion more than projected. This represented an increase of approximately 39 per cent relative to the $161.75 billion recorded for the corresponding period in 2020.

‘Tax Revenue’, ‘Capital Revenue’ and ‘Grants’ outperformed projections during the review period. ‘Tax Revenue’ amounted to $176.67 billion, $17.11 billion more than budgeted.

‘Capital Revenue’ amounted to $778.20 million during the review period, while ‘Grants’ closed the period at $3.08 billion, $1.71 billion more than the budgeted amount. ‘Non-tax Revenue’ of $45.01 billion was reported, $2.33 billion less than budgeted. Notably, no budgeted amount was booked for ‘Bauxite Levy’ and ‘Capital Revenue’.

Less money spent than budgeted

Tota expenditure for the period April to July 2021 amounted to $229.84 billion, $7.33 billion less than the budgeted amount of $237.17 billion. Recurrent expenditure which totalled $209.05 billion, accounted for 90.95% of overall expenditures.

Of the recurrent expenditure categories for the review period, the categories above the budgeted amount were ‘Employee Contribution’ and ‘Interest’. ‘Employee Contribution’ amounted to $7.42 billion, which was $538.10 million or 7.8 per cent more than budgeted.

‘Interest’ totalled $42.52 billion, 4.4 per cent above the budgeted amount of $40.72 billion. Conversely ‘Compensation of Employees’ totalled $78.44 billion, $946.50 million below the budgeted amount of $79.39 billion.

‘Programmes’ totalled $88.08 billion, 6.5 per cent less than budgeted. Additionally, ‘Wages & Salaries’ totalled $71.02 billion, 2.0% less than the budgeted amount of $72.50 billion.

The ‘Fiscal Deficit’, which is the shortfall in a government’s income compared with its spending was $4.31 billion, relative to a ‘Projected Deficit’ of $28.90 billion.

Additionally, the ‘Primary Surplus Balance’, which is the excess of government revenues over non-interest spending, amounted to $38.21 billion, relative to the ‘Budgeted Primary Surplus Balance’ of $11.82 billion.