Puerto Rico's General Fund April revenues came in 6.8% short of budget.
April is normally the month with Puerto Rico's biggest revenue haul of the fiscal year.
On April 26 the Treasury said April's deficit would be $100 million to $200 million. Instead it was $97.7 million short.
By far the biggest revenue gap in April was in corporate taxes. These were $141.6 million short.
In December the government eliminated a gross receipts tax (patente nacional) on large corporations in anticipation that a new tax system would be adopted soon, increasing revenues. However, debate on the tax reform extended longer than Gov. Alejandro García Padilla had anticipated. At the end of April the Puerto Rico House of Representatives rejected the governor's proposed tax reform.
If the corporate tax shortfall had not happened, April revenues would have been $44.4 million above budget. The "others" category had the biggest exceedance over budget, which came in at $158.7 million as opposed to the budgeted $64.5 million projection.
Through the first 10 months of the fiscal year General Fund revenues are 3.3% or $251 million short of budget, according to the Puerto Rico Treasury. April's General Fund net revenues were budgeted for $1.429 billion.
On Thursday Puerto Rico released a report on its financial situation in which it predicted a $191 million deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Along with the loss of the corporate gross receipts tax revenues, it attributed the deficit primarily to the effect of lower than expected economic activity on several types of tax revenues.
On March 30 the government passed a measure that allowed prepayment on certain taxes at advantageous rates and extended the period to get reduced tax rates on other taxes. Puerto Rico's collections gained $300 million in April through these measures, the Treasury reported.
