Puerto Rico gov’t revenue $925M in Dec., up 28% YOY
Treasury Secretary Melba Acosta.
Puerto Rico Treasury Secretary Melba Acosta-Febo said Monday that the General Fund collected $925 million in net revenues during December 2013, $12 million higher than the preliminary figure announced in early January.
Furthermore, December revenues were up $203 million, or 28 percent, over December 2012. Cumulative revenues for the first semester of the current fiscal year 13-14 (July-December) were up $537 million or 15.7 percent from the same period last fiscal year, she said.
Revenues were $93 million over budget for the same period, up from the previously reported $80 million over budget, she added.
Sales and Use tax revenue for December totaled $107.7 million, the highest amount since it was implemented in November 2006, she said. The increase was $7.9 million or 7.9 percent higher compared to last year. Cumulative revenues this year were up $35.5 million or 6.2 percent from the same period last fiscal year.
Meanwhile Acosta-Febo announced Monday that the distribution of the revenue estimate for the remainder of fiscal year 2013-14 has been revised, because it included several measures “for which there was no prior experience.”
Given this, she said that after the first six months of experience with the new revenue measures in place, Treasury would evaluate these measures and their results for the current fiscal year.
“Revenues for the first semester of the current fiscal year surpassed the budget amount by $93 million, with individual revenue line items that reflect variations from the estimates,” Acosta Febo said. “For example, in the case of the individual income taxes, revenues are under budget by $49 million, while corporate income taxes were $108 million over budget. Part of the reason for this is the number of public employees who retired during the last fiscal year.”
She added that the distribution of the total revenue estimate was revised among individual line items for the next six months, taking into consideration trends during the first six months, the actual vs. estimated tax effect of the approved tax legislation, and the administrative and fiscal actions planned to achieve the budgeted revenues.
“The total amount of the revenue estimate remained the same, $9.525 billion, but many of the line items were revised given the experience of the first six months,” Acosta-Febo noted.
Treasury will continue monitoring the revenues on a monthly basis to determine any variation that could affect the budget estimate, she said, confirming that this information was shared with rating agencies during the administration’s meetings last week.
