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Puerto Rico Treasury shores up $612M in May, up 2.6% YOY

Treasury Department headquarters in Puerta de Tierra. (Credit: © Mauricio Pascual)

Treasury Department headquarters in Puerta de Tierra. (Credit: © Mauricio Pascual)

The Puerto Rico Treasury Department reported Tuesday that net revenue General Fund collections for the month of May reached $612 million, exceeding by $15 million, or 2.6 percent, the collections on record for the same month in 2012.

So far this fiscal year —from July 2012 to May 2013 — the government has shored up $7.4 billion, Treasury Secretary Melba Acosta said. The agency is upholding its projection of a $295 million deficit when the fiscal year closes June 30.

However, the prediction is down from the initial $965 million figure, reduced by several non-recurring measures the agency has implemented.

“Treasury continues working with several initiatives this month, among them these, oversight measures, tax agreements related to specific corporate cases, as well as promoting the benefits of the amnesty, which ends June 30, to close the deficit gap,” Acosta said. “For the next fiscal year the budget includes several recurring revenue measures that are aimed at reducing the structural deficit.”

Meanwhile, collections for the government’s main sources of revenue showed mixed results in May. Income tax revenue was $248 million, representing a decrease of some $12 million year-over-year. Within those collections, taxes withheld from non-residents showed an increase of $13 million, while the income tax for individuals and corporations was reduced by $11 million and $15 million, respectively.

On the other hand, personal consumption taxes saw a spike in May, including vehicle excise taxes, which reached $37.6 million last month, up 16.6 percent versus the same month last year. “Sin” tax collections on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes were up 18.4 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Sales and Use Tax collections totaled $92.7 million last month, up 3.4 percent from the $89.6 million in May 2012.

Finally, Law 154 collections from the special excise 4 percent tax imposed on foreign corporations, remained virtually flat year-over-year. Last month, Treasury collected $133.4 million in Law 154 taxes in comparison to the $133.7 million on record for May 2012.

Author Details
Author Details
Business reporter with 30 years of experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers, as well as trade publications in Puerto Rico. My list of former employers includes Caribbean Business, The San Juan Star, and the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, among others. My areas of expertise include telecommunications, technology, retail, agriculture, tourism, banking and most other segments of Puerto Rico’s economy.
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2 Comments

  1. Kenneth McClintock June 19, 2013

    The real income tax comparison should not be YOY May’12 vs May’13, but May’13-actual vs forecast, since we are still in the midst of implementation of the 2011 tax reform.

    Reply
  2. bluepup June 19, 2013

    Why did it ever have to come to all this? Where were
    elected officials all these years as the island was being
    undone? Suddenly, it’s like people just woke up and
    are now seeing that there’s a problem. And, let’s not
    forget, it all happened because of the many “know-it-alls”
    at the helm, busily patting themselves on the back. My
    late mother from Ponce, having only gone up to 3rd grade,
    used to say: “You can go to school and be educated for
    years but it doesn’t mean you really learned anything.”

    Reply

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