$52M collection, $53.3M expenses

Tax collections for the first quarter of 2004 dropped by 3.8 percent compared with collections made in the first quarter of the previous year. Government expenditure, on the other hand, increased by 4.7 percent compared with the previous year.

The CNMI Quarterly Economic Indicator Report released by the Commerce Department disclosed that General Fund Revenue from taxes and fees collected in January-March 2004 reached only $52.72 million compared with $54.83 million in January-March 2003.

The first quarter collection, however, is higher by $7.8 million or 14 percent when compared to the revenue earned during the last quarter of 2003, or an 18-percent increase from the previous quarter.

Based on the report, business and gross receipt taxes reached $13.71 million, while wage and salary taxes amounted to $8.36 million. Garment certification fee collection reached $7.77 million, followed by excise tax, which posted $6.11 million; hotel occupancy tax, $1.7 million; and other revenues that amounted to $9.74 million.

Of the taxes collected, the Commerce Department noted that BGRT increased by 3.4 percent while excise taxes dropped by almost 10 percent, along with hotel occupancy tax that recorded an estimated 11-percent decrease in collection.

Meantime, government expenditure increased by $2.4 million during the first quarter of 2004, jumping from the $50.9 million posted as expenses during the first quarter of 2003 to $53.3 million during the period under review. Expenses for the first quarter, however, recorded a slight drop from the last quarter of 2003, from $53.8 million to $53.3 for the first quarter of 2004.

During the 2003 period, government expenses slowly climbed upward beginning with $50.9 million in January-March 2003 to $53 million in April-June 2003, $56.2 million in July-September 2003, and $53.3 million in October-December 2003 period.

From 2000’s $221.6 million, government operational cost reached $222.5 million in 2001. Expenses spiraled down in 2002 when government expenses went down to $210.7 million and swung up again to $213.9 million in 2003.

Tax collection have also seen this see-saw trend in the last four years, with taxes collected in 2000 reaching $230.20 million and going down to $222.6 million in 2001. It further went down in 2002 to $187.8 million and up again in 2003, with $210.5 million.