Strong economic performance across several sectors has resulted in an improvement of Central Government’s revenue to $280.1 billion at half year. Forecast by authorities now indicate that this impressive climb will continue to a jaw dropping $608.8 billion by the year’s end. This was specifically outlined in the Ministry of Finance’s mid-year report.
That document notes that Central Government current revenue collections, net of the Guyana REDD + Investment (GRIF), a withdrawal from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and carbon credit inflows, amounted to $191.4 billion reflecting growth of 26.5 percent. The report said this performance can be credited to increases within several revenue categories.
Government said tax revenue collections, which accounted for the larger share, grew by $36.7 billion, mainly on account of higher collections of income and value-added taxes. Non-tax revenue collections also increased by $3.4 billion, reflecting growth in the private sector and Bank of Guyana (BOG) profits.
With respect to internal revenue collections, government said this amounted to $117.3 billion, an increase of 32.4 percent over 2022. Its report said this reflected improved private and public sector performances with private sector corporation tax generating an increase of $9.9 billion and public sector increasing by $1.2 billion above 2022 levels. Importantly, this performance is attributed to increased collections from private companies in oil and gas, wholesale and retail trade, and financial and insurance sectors.
Further, increased revenue collections of $7.7 billion or 28.6 percent were recorded from personal income taxes and $7 billion or 30.8 percent for withholding taxes, driven by improved collections from the oil and gas sector.
Value-added and excise tax collections in the first half of the year also increased to $49 billion, 13.5 percent over the corresponding period for 2022. Notably, collections from imported goods and services grew by $2 billion due to higher demand for items such as boilers, machinery, and mechanical appliances. In contrast, excise tax collections decreased by $239.6 million, with the zero rating of the excise tax rate for petroleum products effective from March 23, 2022, combined with reduced collections from tobacco products and alcoholic beverage imports.
Turning to collections of customs and trade taxes, government’s report said this totalled $15.5 billion, reflecting growth of 16.1 percent over the corresponding period in 2022. Import duty collections, which accounted for 87.5 percent of the total share, recorded an increase of $2 billion. Higher imports of food and beverages, vehicles, parts, and accessories and mineral fuels and mineral oils were among the commodities that contributed to this outcome.
Guyana Standard understands that withdrawals from the NRF contributed $83.2 billion to total revenue, while $4.7 billion was deposited from carbon credits inflows at end of June 2023. In the second half of the year, it is anticipated that $125.2 billion will be withdrawn from the NRF and an additional $26.5 billion will be deposited from carbon credit inflows.
With these developments, total revenues for 2023 are now projected at $608.8 billion.
