The Samoan Government received grants amounting to $163.6 million for the Financial Year ending June 2020. This represented a huge increase of more than a $100million compared to the previous year.

The increase was highlighted in a report issued by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics (S.B.S.) and signed by its Chief Executive Officer, Ali’imuamua Malaefono Taua. The report called “Government Finance Statistics” provides the latest available information on the Government's fiscal operation.

According to the report, the grant receipts were mainly for budget support from the New Zealand, Australia as well as the Asian Development Bank.  The Assistant C.E.O. of Finance Statistics Division under S.B.S., Leota Ali’ielua Salani, told the Samoa Observer that other donors include World Bank.

He added that the funding support was part of assistance during the measles epidemic and the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

The total revenue collected in the period under review was $794.8 million, the highest ever achieved by the Government since the series began.

The increase was mainly due to the increase in grants received by way of budget support from donor partners. This saw the share of grants in revenues increase to 20.6 per cent compared to an increase of 6.4 per cent in 2018/19.

In terms of share to total revenue, taxes comprised 70.0 per cent with non-tax revenues at 9.4 per cent. The tax revenues amounted to $556.3 million; it went down slightly in the period under review by 2.8 per cent.

The contributors to this decline includes Taxes on income, profits and gains, Taxes on international trade and transactions as well as Taxes on property with respective contributions of 1.6, 1.4 and 0.1 per cent respectively. Taxes on goods and services went up by 0.5 per cent compared to the previous financial year.

Additionally, other Revenue amounted to $74.9 million for the financial year under review; it declined by 16.0 per cent compared to FY18/19. Property income as well as sales of goods and services contributed 11.2 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.

However, Government’s total expenditure [expenses] for the year under review stood at $660.5 million which marked an increase of $13.6 million (or 2.1 per cent) from FY18/19. This was mainly due to the growth in Operating expenses ($46.7 million) offsetting the decline of $33.1 million in Acquisition of Non-Financial Assets.

The total operating expenses for FY19/20 increased by 8.1 per cent by $47.7 million totaling $623.4 million compared to the financial year 2018/19.

Compensation of employees being the major component of expense recorded a total of $261.1 million contributing 41.9 per cent to overall operating expenses. Use of goods and services was the second major component amounting to $182.0 million, it went down by $4.4 million (0.8 per cent) compared to the previous FY2018/19. 

Grants to other government units recorded a total of $120.4 million, it increased by $13.9 million (2.4 per cent) compared to FY18/19. Other general expenses such as Social benefits, Other expenses, Interests and Subsidies amounted to $60.0 million for the reviewed period and went up 1.2 per cent against the previous year FY18/19.

The FY19/120 total expenditure for General Public Services was $170.1 million. Total expenditure for the sector went up from the previous year by 21.2 per cent or by $27.9 million. 

This was mainly due to commitments made to improve financial as well as external services with our development partners, bilateral and multilateral organizations.