Revenues Outperformed Budget for April to July

The Government’s revenues for April to July 2024 outperformed the budget by 4.5 per cent.

Addressing Friday’s (September 13) Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Quarterly Press Briefing, Chairman Keith Duncan, said total revenues and grants of $301.9 billion exceeded budget projections by $12.9 billion.

Some $270.8 billion accounted for tax revenue and $27.5 billion from non-tax revenue.

“Tax revenues surpassed budget by $3.7 billion or 1.4 per cent for the review period. This was primarily due to stronger-than-expected total income and profits, which was $5.5 billion higher than budget. This was tempered by the lower-than-projected receipts from production and consumption, and international trade,” he pointed out.

Mr. Duncan noted that travel tax, with inflows of $9.5 billion, was $2.1 billion behind target, reflecting slower than projected visitor arrivals.

Non-tax revenue, which exceeded the budget by $7 billion, was positively impacted by the drawdown of the Government of Jamaica’s insurance policies with the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).

Meanwhile, Mr. Duncan said expenditures of $336.2 billion were marginally behind budget by $6.2 billion or 1.8 per cent, but “actually $37.1 billion higher than the total spending for April to July 2023”.

“There was lower-than-projected spending in the recurrent budget. Total recurrent spending for April to July was $32.4 billion higher than the same period last year and this was due to higher programme spending and increased wage bill consequent on the public sector compensation restructuring,” he noted.

For the review period, central government operations resulted in a fiscal deficit of $34.3 billion compared to a budgeted deficit of $53.4 billion, which was higher than the $18.4 billion deficit recorded for April to July 2023.

A primary surplus of $21.7 billion was generated for the review period, which exceeded the budgeted surplus of $2.3 billion but was $12.9 billion lower than the surplus reported for April to July 2023.