2004 tax collections reached $218.59M

The CNMI government’s tax collections for the year 2004 increased to $218.59 million, but the amount is still less than annual collections before Gov. Juan N. Babauta assumed leadership in a new administration, based on a report recently released by the Department of Commerce.

The CNMI Quarterly Economic Indicators indicated that 2004 tax collections managed to exceed government expenditure for the year by over $3 million, with the Finance Department reporting total expenditure at $215.44 million.

The government, though, failed to shake off a fiscal deficit, with unpaid liabilities now reaching $113.3 million.

Total tax collections for 2004 exceeded those of 2003 and 2002, which only totaled $210.56 million and $187.86 million,

However, while collections continued on an increasing trend since Babauta assumed the governorship, the 2004 collections that went to the general fund still fell short of the annual tax collections during the last two years of former Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio. Total taxes and fees for the years 2000 and 2001 reached $230.20 million and $222.60 million, respectively.

Business gross receipt taxes contributed the biggest chunk to the 2004 collections, accounting for $55.5 million of the annual total—or over 25.38 percent.

Other major contributors to the government’s general fund were wage and salary taxes, which totaled $34.97 million, and garment certification fees, which reached $30.56 million. Those taxes account for nearly 16- and 14-percent, respectively, of the total 2004 collections.

Excise tax collections reached $23.88 million; NMTIT personal/corporate income taxes, $11.23 million; fuel/container/bar taxes, $9.91 million; hotel occupancy taxes, $6.18 million.

The government also collected some $46.36 million from other unspecified fees and revenues last year, based on the Commerce report.

Tax collections during the last quarter of 2004 dropped to $49.53 million when compared with the previous quarter’s $60.58 million, but the figure was comparatively higher than the $44.74 million collected during the last quarter of 2003.

Except for the decline in the last quarter, collections sustained an increasing trend last year, beginning with $53.10 million in the first quarter, $55.38 million in the second quarter, and $60.58 million for the third quarter.

Meanwhile, government expenditure increased to $215.44 million in 2004 compared with those of 2002 and 2003, which totaled $210.7 million and $213.9 million. Last year’s total expenditure decreased, however, when compared with annual totals during the last two years of the Tenorio administration—$221.6 million in 2000 and $222.5 million in 2001.

Quarterly expenditures last year totaled $53.3 million in the first quarter; $52.1 million, second quarter; $54.9 million, third quarter; and $55.14 million, fourth quarter.