Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Tax should realise $24.8 billion this year, while collections from internal revenue have been set at $30.4 billion.

Presenting the National Budget in parliament yesterday, Finance Minster Dr Ashni Singh said the country’s fiscal position is budgeted to improve considerably in 2007 and that current revenue (net of rice levy) is projected to rise by four per cent to $64.9 billion. The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is expected to collect $60.8 billion of this.

The minister recalled that for 2006, current revenue grew by 11.1 percent to $62.4 billion, with the GRA collecting 93.7 percent of that amount.

Questions have been asked about the revenue neutrality of the VAT and Excise Tax regimes given the amount expected to be garnered from them, which seem to exceed what would have been collected from the taxes that have been repealed.

Customs and trade taxes grew by 8.7 percent to $28 billion, while internal revenue rose by 11.8 per cent to $30.4 billion. Revenue from sources other than GRA was $3.9 billion, an increase of 21.9 per cent that partly reflects increased transfers of profit from the Bank of Guyana.

“Madam Speaker, we continued to exercise prudence and discipline in the conduct of our fiscal affairs. As a result, we were able to achieve our targets in spite of increased spending for the holding of the general and regional elections and the flooding that occurred in the early part of last year,” the minister said.