Earthquakes that rocked Puerto Rico in January and the coronavirus pandemic cost the island $1.1 billion in estimated revenue as Governor Wanda Vazquez closed almost all non-essential activity to help stop the spread of the virus, Bloomberg News reported. Puerto Rico’s revenue for the year that ended June 30 fell short of initial forecasts by $1.1 billion, Francisco Parés Alicea, Puerto Rico’s Treasury Secretary, said in a statement Wednesday. While the revenue collections are down from what was first expected, the $9.29 billion that Puerto Rico brought in for fiscal year 2020 is $276 million more than the revised revenue projections made on May 27. The amount of Puerto Rico’s revenue collections will help determine how much the island can repay its creditors. The U.S. territory is seeking to reduce nearly $18 billion of debt backed by the commonwealth. An oversight board that manages Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy in May cut $15 billion from the estimated amount available to pay principal and interest through 2032 after the virus stalled the island’s economy. Puerto Rico’s oversight board, which manages the commonwealth’s finances, disagrees with the Treasury Department’s calculations, saying that the government failed to include tax payments pushed into the fiscal 2021 year. Counting those funds would increase the 2020 collections to $9.6 billion, the board said in a statement on Wednesday.
