THERE has been a jump in government revenue collections during the month of April, which amounted to $75.73 billion, up $3.41 billion more than projection.

This represented an increase of approximately 105.1 per cent relative to the $36.92 billion recorded for the corresponding period in 2020. However, grants underperformed the budget by $222.8 million during April. Grants for the period amounted to $93.5 million during the review period.

Based on the revenue out-turn for April, non-tax revenue amounted to $34.52 billion, which is $190.8 million more than budgeted.

The tax collection out-turn released by the Ministry of Finance shows that tax revenue was $41.12 billion, which represented a big jump of $3.45 billion more than budgeted. Notably, there were no budgeted amounts for ‘Bauxite Levy’ and ‘Capital Revenue’, nor were there any provisions made for April.

Government expenditure being kept in check

Total expenditure out-turn for April was below budget as only $63.70 billion was spent, which is $3.42 billion less than the budgeted amount of $67.12 billion. Recurrent expenditure or housekeeping expenses amounted to $56 billion, which accounted for 87.87 per cent of overall expenditures.

Of the recurrent expenditure categories for the review period, the categories’ budgeted amount were for ‘Programmes’, ‘Compensation of Employees’, ‘Wages & Salaries’ and ‘Employee Contribution’.

The amount spent on Programmes totalled $22.61 billion, which is 10.7 per cent less than budgeted, while compensation of employees amounted to $21.46 billion, which is $697.6 million or 3.1 per cent less than budgeted. Wages & Salaries totalled $18.35 billion, while Employee Contribution ended the month at $3.10 billion.

Both categories were 3.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent below the budgeted amount, respectively. Relative to projections, ‘Interest’ totalled $11.90 billion, $322.4 million more than budgeted.

The fiscal surplus, which is where total tax revenue exceeds government spending, ended the month at $12.03 billion, relative to a projected surplus of $5.20 billion. Additionally, the primary surplus balance, which is comprised of current government spending less current income from taxes, and excludes interest paid on government debt, amounted to $23.94 billion for the month of April. This is relative to the budgeted primary surplus of $16.76 billion.

— Durrant Pate