2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTEEN - Taxation and Finance (§§ 1 — 33423) › Subtitle 1 - Governmental Finances (§§ 1 — 155) › Chapter 1 - Treasury Funds and Accounts (§§ 1 — 17) › § 14 - Dedicated Sales Tax Fund—Deposits and disbursements

(a) During Fiscal Year 2006—2007, the amount established in § 12(a)(1) of this title shall be deposited biweekly (2 weeks) in the FIA as the same is received from the revenues from the tax. During each subsequent fiscal year, the first revenues from the tax, up to the amount of the fixed income, shall be deposited the moment they are received in FIA or in any other special fund (including a fund controlled by a trustee designated in the trust agreement under which bonds were issued or other obligations were incurred to meet the purposes established in subsection (b) of § 11a of this title) designated by COFINA. In case the revenues from the tax are less than the fixed income, the Secretary shall be authorized to cover such shortfall from any available funds and is also authorized, as a special cash flow management mechanism when no other alternative is available, to borrow from GDB to cover such shortfall and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall include in the recommended budget for the current fiscal year or the next fiscal year, the appropriations necessary to cover such shortfall.
(b) Each month during each fiscal year, the Secretary shall determine whether three point fifty percent (3.50%) of the tax for the current fiscal year is an amount greater than the fixed income applicable to such fiscal year. Once the Secretary determines that three point fifty percent (3.50%) of the tax for such fiscal year exceeds the fixed income applicable to such fiscal year, all revenues from the tax received after such determination, up to an amount equal to the excess of such three point fifty percent (3.50%) of the tax over the fixed income, shall be deposited in FIA. Furthermore, on or before October 1 of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall determine whether the three point fifty percent (3.50%) of the tax for the previous fiscal year is greater than the fixed income applicable to such previous fiscal year. The revenues from the tax that represent the excess amount of three point fifty percent (3.50%) of the tax for the previous fiscal year over the fixed income applicable to such fiscal year shall belong to FIA.
(c) The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico hereby agrees and assures any person, firm or corporation or any agency of the United States of America or of any state or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico who underwrites or acquires bonds issued by COFINA, or who provides insurance, repayment or solvency sources for such bonds, that until such bonds, from any date, together with the interest thereon, entirely paid for and withdrawn, the Commonwealth shall not: (i) limit nor restrain the rights or powers of the corresponding officials of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to levy, maintain, charge or collect taxes and other income to constitute the amounts to be deposited into the FIA pursuant to the provisions of §§ 11a—16 of this title; Provided, That the foregoing provisions do not limit the power of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, by means of a law amendment, to limit or restrain the nature or the amount of such taxes or other revenues or to substitute similar or comparable collateral by other taxes, fees, charges or other income to be deposited into the FIA if, for the following fiscal years, the revenues projected by the Secretary of the Treasury from such substitutive tax, income or collateral is equal to or greater than the service of the debt and other charges and any coverage requirement included in the COFINA bond authorizing documents; or (ii) limit or restrain the powers hereby conferred by §§ 11a—16 of this title or the rights of COFINA to meet its agreements with bondholders, until such time as such bonds, regardless of their date, together with the interest accrued, shall be entirely paid for and withdrawn. No amendment to §§ 11a—16 of this title, shall undermine any obligation or commitment of COFINA.
(d) In the event that the aggregate revenues from the tax transferred to COFINA in conformity with § 12(a) of this title were to be, at any time, insufficient for the payment of principal of and interest on its bonds or to make any other payment related to other obligations incurred, including payments pursuant to interest rate swap agreements, in connection with borrowed moneys or bonds issued by such instrumentality for the payment of which the proceed of such tax has been pledged or in case the reserve funds of COFINA, if any, established for the payment of the debt service requirements or such obligations are applied to cover the shortfall in the amounts necessary to make such payments, such insufficiencies and the amount of such reserve fund used to cover the shortfall shall be paid or reimbursed to such instrumentality from the first amounts received in the next fiscal year or subsequent fiscal years by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from any remaining portion of the tax after making the deposits established by § 12(a) of this title. In case the revenues from the tax were to be insufficient to cover such payment or reimbursement, the Secretary is hereby authorized to cover such shortfall from any funds available and is further authorized, as a special cash flow management mechanism when no other alternative is available, to borrow money from GDB to cover such shortfall, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall include in the recommended budget for the current fiscal year or the next fiscal year, the appropriations necessary to cover such deficiencies.
(e) The proceeds of the remaining portion of the tax that shall be used pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section to cover an insufficiency or reimburse any reserve fund established for debt service requirements, shall not be deposited in the General Fund of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico when they are collected, but shall be deposited in the FIA for the benefit of the instrumentality and shall be used to cover such insufficiency or reimburse such reserve fund for the payment of debt service requirements.
History —May 13, 2006, No. 91, § 4; Dec. 26, 2006, No. 291, § 3; renumbered as § 5 and amended on July 5, 2007, No. 56, § 4; Jan. 14, 2009, No. 1, § 4; Mar. 9, 2009, No. 7, § 51; May 22, 2009, No. 18, § 4; Oct. 10, 2013, No. 116, § 4.