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Zinke urges expedited release of $223 million in advance payments to USVI
Follows Trump’s approval of disaster declaration in the territory
WASHINGTON—Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced that Interior will be expediting the rum cover over advance payment of $223,925,000 for estimated fiscal year 2018 collections in the U.S. Virgin Islands. President Donald J. Trump has approved and signed a disaster declaration for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which unlocks emergency federal funding for those affected by Hurricane Irma.
“These funds will be critical to operations in the [the U.S. Virgin Islands] as the governor and emergency teams work to recover from the impacts of Hurricane Irma,” said Zinke. “The people of the [the U.S. Virgin Islands] will need all the support they can get.”
Adjustments are calculated based upon amounts advanced from rum excise taxes derived from the U.S. Virgin Islands and collected by the federal government under the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands (48 USC 1541). Under current law, any excise tax collected on USVI-manufactured rum imported into the United States is transferred to or “covered-over” to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The U.S. Virgin Islands government submits its advance estimate of rum excise taxes to the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs on an annual basis so that payment can be made in September of each fiscal year.
Certified rum payments covered over to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2016 totaled $231,498,711. A similar advance payment of $202,725,000 was made to the U.S. Virgin Islands in September of last year for fiscal year 2017.
