Treasury reports $1.2B net revenue collections for General Fund in March
Net revenues to the General Fund totaled $1.2 billion in March 2019, a “new historic level for a month of March,” Puerto Rico Treasury Secretary Raúl Maldonado said.
“This monthly revenue exceeded the Oct. 23, 2018 Certified Fiscal Plan revised projections by $259.1 million. This fiscal year, March has reflected the best performance compared to projections,” he said, attributing the revenue mainly to the current production activity in several sectors of the economy, namely corporate income tax and the foreign corporation excise tax.
“Both taxes are associated to the economic activity of businesses, in particular, the sectors related to infrastructure recovery efforts, construction activity and the manufacturing sector,” Maldonado said.
“Corporate tax collections totaled $310.6 million, a $131.2 million year-over-year increase and $161.4 million above projections, while revenues from the Act 154 foreign corporation excise tax, which are related to the industrial production of the manufacturing sector, were $231.1 million, an increase of $49.3 million compared to March of last year,” Maldonado explained.
Motor vehicle excise taxes continued on an upward trend as well in March.
Those collections have reached the highest level every month of the present fiscal year since Fiscal 2006, that is, in the last 13 years.
March revenue was $43.7 million, an increase of $2.9 million compared with March 2018.
Sales and Use Tax (SUT) revenues to the General Fund totaled $202.6 million in March, approximately $8.7 million less than March 2018 SUT revenues, Maldonado said.
“This difference is attributed to the fact that, last year, SUT revenues reflected the larger effect of the immediate recovery after the passage of the hurricanes. There was a $15 million increase compared to March 2017,” he said.
Excise tax on insurance premiums stands out as another source of growth according to the data. The excise tax is due every year in March and is paid between March and April. March revenues totaled $49.4 million against $27.4 million in March 2018.
Fiscal year-to-date (July-March) net revenues to the General Fund were $7.5 billion, an increase of $1.7 billion, or 29.6 percent, compared to the same period last year, and $576.8 million above the revised projections.
This behavior is attributed to a large extent to the recovery of the economic activity after the passage of the hurricanes, he said.
