Minister of Finance

GOJ enjoys lower Interest cost

May 31, 2015 by IC Insider.com

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The payment for interest on the country’s huge national debt in April by the government of Jamaica ended at $900 million less than budgeted. The total amount paid is also less than that paid in April last year.
Interest payments amount to $7.376 billion compared with $8.168 billion budgeted and is down on the $7.875 billion paid in 2014. The expenditure saw a near $1 billion savings from the budgeted amount for local debt of $4.588 billion, compared to the budgeted sum of $4.547 billion, there was a slight increase in the cost of foreign debt to $2.788 billion, versus $2.621 billion budgeted.
The fall in the interest cost on the local debt would have occurred as a result of Treasury bill rates having fallen at the time the budget was crafted and April, with government having variable rate instruments funding its operations. The cut in the cost amounts to a large 20 percent and if the savings were to continue for the rest of the fiscal year, the savings could be around $12 billion on the amount of $63 billion allocated to pay interest on the local debt.
Overall revenues collected by government was $28.26 billion, a shade less than forecast at $28.6 billion while recurrent expenditures of $41.56 billion were under budget of $42.77 billion. The short fall in revenues is due to the absence of bauxite levy of $147 million budgeted and grants that came in at only $67 million versus $665 million in the budget.

Filed Under: Economy, Feature Stories Tagged With: GOJ revenues, GOJ Treasury bills, Minister of Finance

GOJ intake ahead for January

March 2, 2015 by IC Insider.com

The government of Jamaica enjoyed increased inflows into their coffers in January, bringing the total to $34.4 billion, $1.4 billion more than the $33.2 billion projected. The major area contributing to the improvement is tax on interest delivering $1.2 billion more than forecast.
The intake took the 10 months revenues to $322 billion down by $8.6 billion, just 2.6 percent short of estimates. The major contributors to the year to date shortage is corporate taxes, down $7 billion and production and consumption taxes on local goods and services down by $7.3 billion. Out-performing the target set are, PAYE, non-tax revenues and taxes on interest.
Payments are down, with capital spend coming in at $10.3 billion below projection, interest cost is $5.6 billion lower than originally projected due no doubt to lower interest rates, wages spend is $2.6 billion less than forecast and other expenditure is up by $3.3 billion. The fiscal deficit came in at $6.5 billion ahead of target and the primary surplus at $76 billion is just slightly ahead of target.
The data suggests that the fiscal deficit originally projected at $11.4 billion is likely to end at less than $4.5 billion for the fiscal year.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Economy, Feature Stories Tagged With: GOJ tax revenues, jamaica's fiscal deficit, Minister of Finance

GOJ targets on track but

January 2, 2015 by IC Insider.com

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The Jamaican government is on track to achieve their primary surplus target with the November data showing a $6.2 billion surplus over the target set for the period up to November.
The primary surplus at the end of November is $54.4 billion against a target of $48.2 billion. The excess was achieved although revenues are off by $6.8 billion a slightly worse position than at October by $500 million with a revenue shortfall then of $6.28 billion. Tax revenues fell short by $700 million in November and was the major reason for the shortfall in the month.
On the payment side the wages bill in on target with very little variation but other cost fell by $1.36 billion in November bringing the year to date cut to $2.8 billion. Interest saved climbed to $3.4 billion in November from $3 billion in October. Capital expenditure is underspent by a further $2 billion in November and $7.4 billion so far for the fiscal

Collector of Taxes office, Constant Spring, Kingston, Jamaica

year.
Government borrowed $10 billion less on the local market but foreign borrowing is up by $73.4 billion but loan repayments are in line with original forecast.
The fiscal deficit that was targeted at $34.4 billion is down by $9.6 billion to $24.75 billion and is better than the deficit at the end of October when it reached $26.8 billion.
Tax on interest brought in $2.9 billion in revenue over budget, PAYE is up by $1.7 billion. The shortfalls were mostly local GCT down by $4.3 billion, Corporation tax $4.6 billion, Special consumption $2.2 billion, International traded $2.4 billion and grants $1.2 billion.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Economy, Feature Stories Tagged With: GOJ revenues, jamaica's fiscal deficit, Minister of Finance, Tax collections

Wipe out of Ja fiscal deficit seems likely

July 1, 2014 by IC Insider.com

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With two months out of the 2014/15 fiscal year reported on, the Peter Phillips led Ministry of Finance seems set to again report a wipe out of the fiscal deficit at the end of the fiscal year that ends in March 2015. The budget had suggested a deficit of just over $11 billion. So far there is a $5 billion improvement in the deficit to May with a $2.1 billion improvement in revenues and a $2.9 billion cut in expenditure with capital expenditure accounting for $1.5 billion of the expenditure reduction,but it would be the buoyancy of the revenues that would have been pleasing to the Minister. The country in the past has seen impressive performances in the early months of the financial year only to be face with cuts in expenditure later, as revenues failed to meet the targets set. It will not be clear if the current revenue trend continues, the next few months to come will paint a clearer picture of the likely outturn.
Total revenues which were projected at $52 billion ended at $54 billion and expenditure of $69.6 billion came in at $66.7 billion instead. $752 million less was spent on the wage bill and $676 on programs. Tax revenues brought in $1.87 billion more than projected. The deficit ended at $12.6 billion versus $17.6 billion projected.