Above: USVI Governor John de Jongh commissions the new Captain Morgan distillery in 2010 (Photo: OG)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

US President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget forecasts an increase in rum revenues to the US Virgin Islands, according to Donna Christensen, the territory’s delegate to the US Congress.

The news comes after the first case of Captain Morgan rum were produced earlier this month at the company’s new distillery in St Croix. That case was presented to Governor John de Jongh.

“The Department of Interior has reported that the US Virgin Islands is scheduled to receive an estimated $195 million for federal taxes collected on distilled spirits in the territory,” Christensen said.

That forecast is more than $95 million more than the projects in 2011, she said.

President Obama submitted a $575.3 million budget for the Office of Insular Affairs of the Department of the Interior to address the needs of the United States’ offshore territories, which include the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.