Government's 2016 revenue was $188 million lower than projected, Finance Minister Colm Imbert has confirmed.
Speaking in Parliament, Imbert said while Government's revised revenue projections for fiscal 2016 was $44.94 billion, the actual amount collected was $44.75 billion–$188 million lower than projected–which also led to a slightly higher deficit than projected.
"All of the data for 2016 is not yet finalized, however, the provisional out-turn on fiscal operations for 2016 has shown a deficit of $7.6 billion, which is just over $300 million more than the revised estimates."
"The variance is mainly as a result of a higher than projected expenditure of $171 million, as well as lower than projected revenue of $188 million," he said.
Imbert confirmed the financial situation while piloting legislation to close accounts of the 2016 Budget. He said in September 2016 when the 2017 Budget was presented, revised estimates for 2016 were included in the draft estimates for 2017.
The revised revenue was projected at $44.94 billion, compared to $60.29 billion. Revised expenditure was projected at $52.2 billion compared to $63.049 billion, at September/October 2015.
The minister said the 2016 revenue was projected at $44.94 billion, which would have had a deficit of $7.3 billion. However, the actual amount collected–$44.75 billion–which is lower than the projection, would yield a deficit of $7.6 billion.
"At the time of the budget, public servants are working on estimates because they would not have had the data for the last two or three weeks for the fiscal year, so they're doing estimated projections," Imbert said.
"So they estimated that revenue would be $44.9 billion but it was, in fact, $44.75 billion, so there was $188 million lower than revised revenue.
"The negative variance was due mainly to lower receipts on taxes on goods and services of $91 million, taxes on international trade of $45 million, non-tax revenue of $522 million and capital revenue of $104million."
"So all of these were lower than anticipated receipts in these categories," he added, detailing where lower receipts arose, including royalty on oil and gas which was lower by $206 million due to low oil prices.