Vanuatu posted record revenues from the Citizenship by investment (Cbi) schemes for the mid year 2019. This is the first time the revenues from citizenship programs overtook that of VAT collection. Vanuatu collected $45m in CIP revenues during first six months of 2019 alone.
According to a mid year financial report released for 2019, the revenues two citizenship schemes VDSP and VCP in the first six months of 2019 which is 16.4 per cent higher than in the first six months of 2018.
The Vanuatu Citizenship Office has had success in its Vanuatu Development Support Program (VDSP) and Vanuatu Contribution Program (VCP). Exceeding budget target by 371.5 percent, total revenue earned from the programs in 2018 outweighed the government’s top revenue earner for the past decades – VAT collections.
The report said, VCP and VDSP collected USD 45 million (VT 5,364.6 million) by the end of June 2019. This is 82.5 per cent of the revised budget target of VT 6,504.6 million and is 16.4 per cent more than the VT 4,610.6 million revenue from VDSP and VCP during the same period last year.
The Government said in the report, remains careful not to rely on the income stream from the honorary citizenship programs and is working on implementing the Tax Administration Act to make collection of tax revenue more efficient
Vanuatu’s economy registered a real GDP growth of 4.4 per cent in 2017 owing hugely to infrastructure related activities. The Macroeconomic Committee (MEC) growth forecast for 2019 is 3.4 per cent, before expanding to 4.0 per cent in 2020, supported mainly by tourism-related services and major upcoming construction activities.
The Citizenship for investment schemes in Vanuatu over the years has played an important role for government revenues and development of Vanuatu.
