GIVEN the continuous strong economic performance, Guyana has so far recorded increased revenues and it is projected that this could amount to some $608.8 billion by the end of the year.

This is according to the Ministry of Finance’s mid-year report which indicated that the improved economic performance across several sectors has increased Central Government’s revenues.

For the first half of this year, the report said revenues amounted to $280.1 billion.

It was stated that the current revenue collections net of the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) withdrawal and carbon credit inflows amounted to some $191.4 billion thus showing a growth of about 26.5 per cent.

According to the report, this performance can be credited to increases within several categories, including tax revenue collections which accounted for the larger share as these grew by $36.7 billion owing to higher collections of income and value-added taxes.

Non-tax revenue collections also increased by $3.4 billion which reflects growth in the private sector and Bank of Guyana profits.

The report went on to add that internal revenue collections amounted to $117.3 billion which shows an increase of 32.4 per cent when compared to 2022. As such, this reflects improved private and public sector performances even as it was noted that private sector corporation tax generated an increase of $9.9 billion while the public sector’s increased by $1.2 billion which is above the 2022 levels.

“This performance is attributed to increased collections from private companies in oil and gas, wholesale and retail trade, and financial and insurance sectors. Further, increased revenue collections of $7.7 billion or 28.6 per cent were recorded from personal income taxes and $7 billion or 30.8 per cent for withholding taxes, driven by improved collections from the oil and gas sector,” the report noted.

Among the increases recorded were the collections of value-added and excise taxes in the sum of $49 billion, a 13.5 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Added to this, collections from imported goods and services also grew by $2 billion as a result of the higher demand for items like broilers, machinery and mechanical appliances.

However, excise tax collections decreased by $239.6 million with the zero-rating of the excise tax rate for petroleum products combined with reduced collections from tobacco products and alcoholic beverage imports.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that withdrawals from the country’s NRF contributed $83.2 billion to total revenue, while $4.7 billion was deposited from carbon credit inflows at the end of June this year.

To this end, for the second half of 2023, it is anticipated that $125.2 billion will be withdrawn from the NRF while an additional $26.5 billion will be deposited from carbon credit inflows.

The report noted that, with these significant developments, the total revenue for the year 2023 is currently projected at $608.8 billion.