Muscat: The state’s general budget has achieved a financial surplus of OMR 357 million by the end of the first quarter of this year, and efforts will be directed to stimulating economic recovery, increasing spending on priority development projects, and reducing the level of indebtedness along with managing its risks.
The monthly bulletin issued by the Ministry of Finance indicated that the state’s public revenues, until the end of the first quarter of 2022, increased by 66.3 per cent, to reach about OMR 3.25 billion compared to the revenues collected in the same period of 2021, which amounted to OMR 1.819 billion.
This rise is mainly due to the increase in net oil revenues at the end of the first quarter of 2022 by 70.2 percent, reaching about OMR 1.656 billion, compared to the same period in 2021 due to the increase in the average oil price achieved to about 78 US dollars per barrel and the rise in the average production amounted to about 1.25 million barrels per day, compared to the price achieved during the same period in 2021, which amounted to 45 US dollars, with an average production of about 952,000 barrels per day.
Gas revenues increased by about 454 million Omani riyals, or 124.4 per cent, compared to the same period in 2021, due to the rise in gas prices and the increase in production.
Current revenues increased by 23.7 percent compared to the same period in 2021, as a result of the start of collection of value-added tax revenues by about OMR 69 million and the excise tax by about OMR 24 million, in addition to improving the processes of supplying government revenues.