$2.75b revenue for 2022-2023 financial year

The total revenue for the 2022-2023 financial year stood at $2.7498 billion which is 22.6 percent of GDP while the total expenditure amounted to $3.5892 billion or 29.5 percent of GDP.

Permanent Secretary Finance, Shiri Gounder says the net deficit for the 2022-2023 financial year stood at $839.4 million, equivalent to 6.9 percent of GDP.

He says this was lower than the previous 2 years of double-digit deficits (11.4 percent of GDP in 2020-2021 financial year and 11.9 percent in 2021-2022 financial year) and slightly lower than the budget for the period under review.

He says total revenue for 2022-2023 financial year was above the revised forecast by $64.4 million or 2.4 percent as a result of higher-than-expected collections from both tax and non-tax revenues.

Gounder says compared to the 2021-2022 financial year, total revenue collection was higher by $559 million or 25.5 percent.

A sum of $2.285 million in tax revenues was collected in 2022-2023 financial year, surpassing the revised forecast by $32.7 million or 1.5 percent and was higher by $593 million or 35 percent when compared to 2021-2022 financial year.

He says the strong pick-up in tax collections can be attributed to the strong broad-based post pandemic economic recovery driven by tourism and related sectors with positive spill-over effects on the wider economy.

Gounder says higher than anticipated collection was noted in VAT above by $21.3 million, Fiscal Duty(above by $8.7 million), Dividend Withholding Tax (above by $7.2 million), Water Resource Tax(above by $1.4 million), Capital Gains Tax (above by $1.1 million), Personal Taxes (above by $0.9 million), Import Excise Duty (above by $0.8 million), Corporate Taxes (above by $0.7 million), Social Responsibility Tax (above by $0.4 million), Luxury Vehicle Levy (above by $0.2 million), Stamp Duties (above by $0.2 million), and Export Duty (above by $0.1 million), while other revenue categories underperformed relative to the forecast.

Non-tax revenues totalled $464.8 million and was higher by $31.7 million or 7.3 percent in comparison to the revised estimates.

The positive out-turn was driven by higher dividends from investment (above by $13.3 million), Grants in Aid (above by $9.2 million), Reimbursement and Recoveries (above by $3.5 million), Other Revenue & Surpluses (above by $3.5 million) and Fees, Fines & Charges (above by $2.8 million).

Gounder says in the 2022-2023 financial year, total government expenditures stood at $3.589 billion, higher than the revised forecast by $153.5 million or 4.5 percent.

He says both operating and capital expenditure was above the revised forecast by $141.5 million and $19.3 million, respectively.

Gounder says this was largely due to increases noted in expenditure towards the end of the financial year.

The operating to capital mix stood at 72:28 at the end of 2022-2023 financial year.