Grants, Bauxite Levy and Capital Revenue underperformed projections

Durrant Pate/Contributor

There has been a slight rise in Government of Jamaica revenue collections for the period April to June 2022.

Total revenue grants collected during the period amounted to J$177.18 billion, which is J$13.81 billion more than the Government’s projection. This represented an increase of approximately one per cent relative to the J$175.38 billion recorded for the corresponding period in 2021.

Grants, Bauxite Levy and Capital Revenue all under-performed projections during the review period. Grants closed the period at J$629.40 million, which is J$502.9 million less than the budgeted amount.

Bauxite Levy amounted to J$204.60 million during the review period, which is J$98.0 million less than the budgeted amount. Capital Revenue recorded nil relative to the budgeted amount of J$68.60 million.

Tax revenue exceeded budgeted amount

Conversely, Tax Revenue closed the period at J$164.36 billion, which is J$12.41 billion more than the budgeted amount. Non-Tax Revenue amounted to J$11.99 billion, which is 21 per cent higher than the budgeted amount.

On the expenditure side, total expenditure for April to June 2022 amounted to J$175.45 billion, which is J$580.30 million more than the budgeted amount of J$174.87 billion. Recurrent expenditure, which totalled J$161.64 billion, accounted for 92 per cent of overall expenditures.

Under the recurrent expenditure categories for the review period, the categories above the budgeted amount were ‘Wages and Salaries’ and ‘Interest’. Wages and Salaries totalled J$62.66 billion, which is 0.1 per cent above the budgeted amount of J$62.61 billion.

Interest totalled J$28.73 billion, which is J$511.40 million above the budgeted amount.

Below par performance

The categories below the budgeted amount included ‘Programmes’ which amounted to J$65.71 billion, which is J$399.4 million or 0.6 per cent less than budgeted. Similarly, ‘Employee Contribution’ totalled J$4.54 billion, which is J$470.30 million below the budgeted amount of J$5.01 billion.

Compensation of Employees’ totalled J$67.20 billion, which is 0.6 per cent less than the budgeted amount. The ‘Fiscal Deficit,’ which is the difference between its spending and income from taxes and other revenues was J$1.74 billion, relative to a ‘Projected Deficit’ of $11.49 billion.

Additionally, the ‘Primary Surplus Balance’ which is the current government spending less current income from taxes, and excludes interest paid on government debt. for the period amounted to J$30.47 billion, relative to the ‘Budgeted Primary Surplus Balance’ of J$16.73 billion.