Jamaica began the fiscal year with a near $3 billion deficit, the Finance Ministry'sApril financials show, a significantly better outcome than the $4.8 billion budgeted.

Government spending was almost $2 billion below projections - evidence of tightened purse strings controlled by Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies - with big savings of more than $700 million each reflected in recurrent programmes and debt serving costs for the month.

Davies also skewered capital programmes, doling out only $904 million of the $1.38 billion budgeted.

Tax collections of $15.3 billion, however, were slightly off-course by $220 million, a sign Davies' promise to go after collections more aggressively this fiscal year may not have been fully opera-tionalised by revenue agents.

Income tax collections

The main laggards were in the international trade category, where collections were off target by $808 million, but stronger corporate and personal income tax collections, as well as strong performance from GCT and the education tax helped to offset the shortfall.

Overall, the treasury took in revenues of $16.7 billion for the period, while paying out $19.7 billion for expenses.

But the ministry also gobbled up $22.8 billion in new debt, mostly from the domestic markets it had projected borro-wings of $20.5 billion in the period - some of which would have financed the $6.9 billion of principal debt on the books that was paid down in April.

For the year, its target for new debt is $114 billion.

Tax collections for the 12-month period are estimated at $216 billion, representing 57 per cent of the $380 billion budget.

The primary balance in April was $3.9 billion, a billion better than programmed.

business@gleanerjm.com