Geisha Kowlessar-Alonzo, T&T Guardian

PORT SPAIN
EnergiesNet.com 10 31 2022

Finance Minister Colm Imbert says Government has gotten more revenue than initially expected from oil companies.

In 2021 he said tax collection from oil revenue was $3.1 billion while in 2022 Government estimated that figure to be $5.53 billion.

However, the latter figure was actually doubled.

“What we actually found when we did our estimates just before the budget in October 2022 was instead of getting $5.53 billion in revenue from the oil companies we got $10.45 billion, almost twice as much,” Imbert said.

The minister made the remarks while speaking at the “Conversations on Energy and the Economy” hosted by the Energy Chamber and held at Hyatt Regency on Wednesday afternoon.

“In 2021 taxation from oil companies was $3.1 billion out of total revenue collection from taxation of $16.8 billion.

“So oil companies contributed less than 20 per cent of tax collections in 2021.

“In 2022 our preliminary estimates oil companies are now contributing 10.4 billion out of $20.7 billion; that’s 35 per cent,” Imbert further explained.

And statement issued by the Finance Ministry yesterday said the Board of Inland Revenue has since finalised the actual revenue figures for fiscal 2022 and it has been determined that the total revenue in fiscal 2022 was $54.21 billion.

This was $2.57 billion more than the revised estimate announced in September 2022, and $10.88 billion more than the original revenue estimate of $43.33 billion for fiscal 2022, made in October 2021.

It said the ministry was now in receipt of the final figures for the actual revenue collections in fiscal 2022, up to the end of September 2022.

“At the time of the presentation of the 2023 budget on September 26, 2022, the revenue figures for fiscal 2022 were based on actual figures, from October 1, 2021 to August 31, 2022, and estimated figures for September 2022,” the statement explained.

It said with total expenditure for fiscal 2022 now estimated at $54.54 billion, the fiscal deficit for 2022 is now estimated at $329 million, which is less than 0.2 per cent of GDP, well below the international benchmark for fiscal deficits of three per cent of GDP.

“In essence, we have achieved an almost balanced national budget in fiscal 2022, something that has not occurred in T&T since 2008, 14 years ago,” the statement added.

guardin.co.tt 10 28 2022