Capital Revenue and Bauxite Levy under-performed

Durrant Pate/Contributor

For the period of April to October 2022, the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) purse has got heavier than planned with collections over-performing.

Total revenues and grants for the period amounted to J$430.67 billion, which is J$48.18 billion more than the Government’s projection. This represents an increase of approximately 14.8 per cent relative to the J$375.05 billion recorded for the corresponding period in 2021.

Capital Revenue and Bauxite Levy under-performed projections during the review period. Capital Revenue recorded nil relative to the budgeted amount of J$203.4 million. Bauxite Levy amounted to J$705.20 million during the review period, which is J$2.6 million less than the budgeted amount.

Conversely, grants closed at J$3.28 billion, J$510.5 million more than the budgeted amount. Tax Revenue amounted to J$394.76 billion, which is J$39.61 billion more than the budgeted amount.

Non-tax revenue totaled J$31.92 billion, which Is 24.4 per cent higher than the budgeted amount.

Expenditures budget

Total Expenditure for the period April to October 2022 closed at J$417.15 billion, which is J$14.96 billion less than the budgeted amount of J$432.11 billion. Recurrent or house-keeping expenditure, which totaled J$388.87 billion, accounted for 93 per cent of overall expenditures.

Under the recurrent expenditure categories for the review period, the categories above the budgeted amount were ‘Interest’ and ‘Programmes’. Interest totalled J$85.33 billion, J$2.95 billion above the budgeted amount while ‘Programmes’ amounted to J$149.10 billion, which is J$2.2 million or 0.001 per cent more than budgeted.

The categories below the budgeted amount included ‘Compensation of Employees’ which amounted to J$154.44 billion which is J$14.65 billion or 8.7 per cent less than budgeted. Similarly, ‘Employee Contribution’ totalled J$10.48 billion, which is J$2.01 billion below the budgeted amount of J$12.49 billion.

Lastly ‘Wages and Salaries’ totalled J$143.96 billion, 8.1 per cent below the budgeted amount of J$156.60 billion. The ‘Fiscal Surplus’ was J$13.52 billion, relative to a ‘Projected Deficit’ of J$47.62 billion.

Additionally, the ‘Primary Surplus Balance’ for the period amounted to J$98.85 billion, relative to the ‘Budgeted Primary Surplus Balance’ of J$34.76 billion.