The Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority collected just over 500-million US dollars in revenue in September, an increase of 4.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The interim Prime Minister and acting Minister for Finance and National Planning, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, says the continued increase in the revenue collection shows continued improvement in Fiji's economy.
The Fiji Times reports that in a statement, Mr Bainimarama said with the 2009 Budget to be announced in November this was a good indicator that the Government has made significant headway in the past 22 months in stabilising the economy.
According to FIRCA, at the end of the third quarter of 2008, net revenue collection remained buoyant with net collection exceeding forecast by nearly three million US dollars.
FIRCA chief executive officer, Jitoko Tikolevu, said the implementation of a number of tax and duty relief packages provided in response to higher food and energy prices has mainly eroded revenue collection in the last two months.
But he says he is optimistic that the collection in the last three months of the year will improve as the festive season approaches.
