Financial secretary: Govt could end fiscal year $100M ahead of revenue projections

The government projects that it could end fiscal year 2021/2022 $100 million ahead of budgeted revenue, Financial Secretary Simon Wilson said yesterday, adding that the government recently received an unbudgeted dividend payment from Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) which has revenue tracking $150 million ahead of budget.

Wilson made the remarks during an appearance on radio talk show Morning Blend Business on Guardian Radio 96.9FM, explaining that the Ministry of Finance has put together very conservative revenue projections and thus expects not to fall below those projections in any significant way.

Wilson also explained that the Omicron COVID-19 variant will likely have very little impact on fiscal numbers, barring extenuating circumstances like lockdowns.

“For the six months between January and June, Omicron will have very little impact,” Wilson said.

“We took a very conservative stance in terms of the the fiscal account. That being said, if you look at the data around the Omicron variant in South Africa and the UK, they talk about a surge of cases, then case loads drop dramatically, hospitalizations do not surge and mortality does not increase from the Omicron variant.

“The data is saying maybe the impact will be such that it will not lead to a widespread shutdown of the economy. If it doesn’t we’ll be okay, if it does obviously the game plan would have to change.”

Wilson pointed to the cruise sector, which is once again being hit by COVID-19 cases aboard ships, but said those realities have not changed the behavior of people intent on cruising. He said people seem to be satisfied with safeguards aboard cruise lines and that many, if not all, are vaccinated.

Wilson said one of the biggest impacts to the country’s budget will be natural disasters, but he explained that with hurricane season not a threat until the latter half of the year, the government is confident that it will be in line with projections in the supplementary budget exercise.

He added though that the overhang from arrears could prove a problem on government expenditure, as well as any kind of impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare costs.

“Those things could put immediate pressure on the expenditure budget,” said Wilson.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/financial-secretary-govt-could-end-fiscal-year-100m-ahead-of-revenue-projections/