COFINA hits the semiannual sales-tax capture target for debt service

The Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA), attached to the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF), announced that it hit the statutory capture target for the Sales and Use Tax (IVU) required to guarantee the corresponding fiscal year's debt service. The milestone was met several weeks earlier than in prior fiscal years.

Under the COFINA Debt Adjustment Plan approved in 2019 under Title III of PROMESA, the first collections of the 5.5 percent state IVU entered through the Unified Internal Revenue System (SURI) of the Department of Hacienda, led on an acting basis by Nelson J. Pantoja, are transferred automatically to the custodial account of the restructured bondholders until the legally fixed line is completed.

Once COFINA's annual obligation is satisfied, the entirety of subsequent IVU collections passes directly to the central government's General Fund to finance public services and government payrolls. The Fiscal Oversight Board, led by Robert F. Mujica Jr., certified compliance with the payment calendar and noted the stability shown by commercial revenues in the retail sector.

Source: Caribbean Business. https://caribbeanbusiness.com/cofina-alcanza-meta-semestral-recaudo-ivu-servicio-deuda/