Puerto Rico General Fund net income exceeds projections by $42.9M in May, Treasury says
The Puerto Rico Treasury Department informed that net income shored up into Puerto Rico’s General Fund exceeded $1.4 billion in May, beating the government’s projections by $42.9 million.
In a press release, agency Secretary Francisco Parés said the projected amount was $1.3 billion, representing a growth of 3.1%.
“This projection is included in the new Fiscal Plan certified by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico on April 23, 2021,” said Parés, who is also the Commonwealth’s CFO.
The strongest collections categories for May “reflected a high level of adjustment with respect to the projection for the month,” he added.
“Among the sectors that exceeded projections are the individual income tax, which exceeded the estimate by $15.1 million; the Sales and Use Tax (IVU, in Spanish), at $11.8 million; excise taxes on shipments, at $16.3 million; and foreign entities, in at $35.3 million,” Parés said.
Meanwhile, the category of “Withheld from non-resident,” did not reach the $50.5 million projection for the month, reaching $33.8 million instead, or falling short by $16.9 million. But the “Corporation Income,” which totaled $359.8 million, deficient by $28.8 million when compared to the estimated $388.6 million.
During the July 2020 to May 2021 period, revenues to the General Fund totaled $10.3 billion, which when compared to the estimated $10.1 billion, represents an additional $117 million.
For the fiscal period 2019-2020, the accrued income as of May totaled $8.6 billion, while the amount collected during fiscal 2020-2021 exceeded that by $1.8 billion, an increase of 20.6% year-over-year.
The accumulated collections from July to May under the “Others” category exceeded projections by $140 million, but revenue shored up under the “Corporations” category was under by $132 million.
However, the agency said May collections in 2020 were negatively affected by the government’s lockdown orders put in place in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.
Parés expressed optimism over the trend reflected in May and anticipated “positive behavior for the month of June.”
