Puerto Rico general fund net revenue for the first 11 months of fiscal year 2022 was 12.8% above the Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s most recent projection.
In the July 2021 to May 2022 period revenue was also 16.8% above the same months a year earlier, according to information released Friday.
Puerto Rico’s general fund revenue in the first 11 months already exceeded the board’s January revenue projections for the fiscal year by 1.4%. Revenue through May exceeds the board’s April 2021 projection by 12.5%.
Through May the general fund accumulated $11.483 billion in net revenue.
The categories with the biggest hauls were individual income taxes ($2.573 billion), the sales and use tax ($2.385 billion), corporate income taxes ($2.207 billion), and the Law 154 excise tax on foreign corporations ($1.465 billion).
From July 2021 to May 2022 the categories with the biggest exceedances compared to the January projections were the corporate income tax category, $636 million over, and the individual income tax category with a $610 million surplus.
May net revenue came in at $1.22 billion, 40% more than the board’s January projection but 13.7% less than the figure for May 2021.
Some bondholders have complained the board has underestimated projected general fund revenues. Differences on anticipated revenues during negotiations of the Puerto Rico debt restructuring, caused the sides to include a contingent value instrument that would pay bondholders more if revenue came in higher than projections.
Negotiators for parties involved in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority debt restructuring are also following general fund revenues as indicators of the general strength of the island’s economy. Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura Taylor Swain has given the board until Aug. 1 to submit a proposed deal, lay out a litigation schedule, or to explain why she should not dismiss the six-year-old PREPA bankruptcy process.