Department of Finance Secretary David Atalig yesterday noted that the financial situation of the CNMI is slowly but surely improving, specifically collection-wise.<\/p>\n
Atalig in an interview yesterday noted that NMI finances are slowly improving. He further noted that the Office of Management and Budget\u2019s projected budget of over $30 million for the remainder of fiscal year 2019 could possibly be met based on the current collections.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur collections have been improving as projected and based on the adjusted budget. I am confident we would hit our projected [budget],\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026We are seeing a little more business activity; numbers are coming back,\u201d he continued, referring to a possibly resurging tourism economy.<\/p>\n
Atalig emphasized, however, that the slight economic comeback is \u201cnot as good as we expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing Marianas Visitors Authority tourist numbers, he noted that there is a \u201cdrastic decline\u201d in tourist numbers compared to the same time period last fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe looking at the numbers we are doing better,\u201d he noted. \u201cIn summer time we are expecting higher rates\u2026of travel. The fourth quarter is generally the time of the year we collect more revenue in higher percentages than other quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Excise tax, according to the Finance secretary, is doing well with collections trumping last year\u2019s figures within the same time period by a reported $6 million. Atalig did not immediately provide the specific figures.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026Based on my meeting [last Monday] with the directors, our excise tax collection is $6 million above last year\u2019s number for the same period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPre-Super Typhoon Yutu we were doing well\u2014commodities are coming in, and so that\u2019s good news. However, we just need to work with our\u2026companies to pay their fair share of Business Gross Revenue Tax,\u201d Atalig continued, adding that what remains is a matter of communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Department of Finance Secretary David Atalig yesterday noted that the financial situation of the CNMI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":303105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-303194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}