Gov't already $4.4b behind new revenue target

Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:17 AM

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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The Government will have to outperform its original revenue projections for the second half of this fiscal year by more than $4 billion if it is to meet its revised targets.

At the end of September, Finance Minister Audley Shaw presented a new revenue target of $315 billion, or $11.4 billion less than originally projected for the fiscal year, which runs to March 31, 2010.

The Government's fiscal numbers to September 30 - released last week - showed that revenue for the six-month period totalled $135 billion.

But the original budget projections placed revenue at $175.6 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year - October to next March.

This means that the Government will have to outperform its original projections by $4.4 billion to meet its new target.

What's more, the $180 billion that Government will have to raise during the second half of 2009/2010 represents 25 per cent more than it did in the comparative period last fiscal year.

The Government, for the fiscal year thus far, has fallen short of revenue targets every month, excepting in April when it beat projections by $300 million.

Even then, in September the Government fell short of revenue projections by $5.4 billion and was only 14 per cent ahead of the same month last year.

The revised revenue target fits in an overall supplementary budget, which the Government hopes will be reached with a deficit target of $94.5 billion stemming from the lower revenue projections and $6 billion more in revenue.