For the period of April to May 2021, the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) reported total Revenues & Grants of $118.58 billion, which is $8.11 billion more than projection.

This represented an increase of approximately 58.9 per cent relative to the $74.62 billion recorded for the corresponding period in 2020. ‘Tax Revenue’ and ‘Capital Revenue’ outperformed projections during the review period.

‘Tax Revenue’ amounted to $79.89 billion, $8.13 billion more than budgeted. ‘Capital Revenue’ amounted to $778.20 million during the review period. ‘Non-tax Revenue’ of $37.46 billion was reported, $555.7 million less than budgeted.

Government grants were below projections

Grants closed the period at $445.70 million, $242.80 million less than the budgeted amount. No budgeted amount was booked for ‘Bauxite Levy’ and ‘Capital Revenue’.

On the expenditure side, total expenditure for the period April to May 2021 amounted to $113.82 billion, $8.1 billion less than the budgeted amount of $121.92 billion. Recurrent expenditure, which totalled $101.33 billion, accounted for 89.02 per cent 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 $4.55 billion and was $201.20 million or 4.6 pe cent more than budgeted while ‘Interest’ totalled $18.80 billion, 3.1 per cent above the budgeted amount of $18.23 billion.

Expenditure on government ‘Programmes’ totalled $41.77 billion, 14 per cent less than budgeted. Additionally, ‘Compensation of Employees’ totalled $40.75 billion, 0.6 per cent less than the budgeted amount of $41.01 billion.

The ‘Fiscal Surplus’ was $4.76 billion, relative to a ‘Projected Deficit’ of $11.46 billion. Additionally, the ‘Primary Surplus Balance’ for the period amounted to $23.56 billion, relative to the budgeted Primary Surplus of $6.78 billion.