Govt. records net lending/borrowing surplus

By Joyetter Feagaimaali’i-Luamanu 07 May 2018, 12:00AM

The Central Budgetary Government (C.B.G.) operations for the quarter ending December 2017 recorded a net lending/borrowing surplus balance of $4.2 million. 

This is according to the figures released by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics (S.B.S.) financial statistics for the December 2017 quarter. 

The statistics are issued by the Central Bank. 

“The positive outturn was mainly fueled by good revenue collection of $152.9 million during the quarter reflecting an increase from the December 2016 and September 2017 quarters of $16.3 million (2.3 percent) and $23.7 million (3.5 percent) respectively. 

 “The increase in revenue was more than enough to offset the increase of $5.7 million in C.B.G.’s total expenditure from last December to stand at $148.6 million in the current review. 

 “Nonetheless, the overall balance had recorded a slight shortfall of $1.5 million from last year’s amount.” 

According to the report, the Net Operating Balance on the other hand also recorded a surplus of $29.2 million for the quarter under review. 

 “This can be translated into a significant decrease of $7.7 million (20.9 percent) if compared to December on a yearly basis. 

 “The contributing factor was largely due to the increase in operating expenses at $11.9 million (10.7 percent) from last year offsetting the increase in revenue over the period.” 

According to the report, the improved government operation for the period resulted in an increase of government’s financial resources with the banking system of $12.5 million.

The report further notes the aggregated revenue amount consists of $145 million, 4.8 percent of other revenues $7.4 million and grants which contributed $0.5 million to the overall amount and that total receipts for the quarter under review increased by 2.8 percent on a year-on-year basis with tax being the dominant component.

The aggregated taxes for December 2017 amounted to $145 million being 12.7 percent higher compared to December 2016. 

“The biggest contribution was from taxes on goods and services with a total of $95.8 million, this comprises general taxes on goods and services $56.1 million, excise tax $36.2 million and taxes on specific services $3.5 million, only accounting for 3.7 percent of total tax on goods and services. 

“As a result, taxes on goods and services contributed 7.1 percentage points to overall tax change from December 2016. 

“Taxes on income, profits and capital gains were the second largest contributor to tax revenue $31.9 million, amount for period under review experienced an increase of $5.2 million compared to its corresponding quarter 2016. 

“It contributed positively with 4.0 percentage points to the overall tax annual change.” 

The report also noted the total shares from the other revenue category amounted to $7.4 million where the sale of goods and services had contributed $6.4 million. 

It also showed the performance started to deteriorate in December 2016 declining at an average rate of 20.3 percent in the past 12 months primarily due to the drop of revenue from administrative fees. 

As a result, other revenue contributed negatively to overall revenue annual change at 8.3 percent, says the report.

By Joyetter Feagaimaali’i-Luamanu 07 May 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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