Thursday 09 / May / 2024
Muscat: One of the most important goals of the 2024 State Budget is financial, economic and social sustainability, said Dr. Mohammed bin Humaid Al Wardi, a member of the State Council.
Elaborating further he said, “Financial sustainability will be achieved through curbing deficit and overcoming public debt, and this we have achieved. Economic sustainability is being sought through working to achieve the targets fixed for the economy.”
Regarding social sustainability, he said the budget is will continue to support the social services that the government provides to the citizens.
“We noticed that approximately OMR2 billion were allocated for the education sector itself and this does not only include the current budget spending in the education sector, but also the development projects in the budget through the setting up 15 new schools, issuing tenders for 20 new government schools, in addition to establishing the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Musandam Governorate,” he added.
Dr Al Wardi further said: “Regarding the health projects, OMR1 billion has been allocated and this covers current expenses in addition to development expenses for the establishment of three government hospitals in Samail, Al-Namaa and Al-Falah, in addition to completing seven government hospitals and other health centres.”
With regard to the housing sector, the Minister of Finance had stated in his budget media meeting that the Sultanate is adopting an approach to accelerate loans granted to citizens for the construction of their homes.
He also hinted at setting up a lending portfolio worth OMR1.9 billion from which nearly 60,000 families will benefit. The government's role will be to provide partial support for the lending portfolio in order to accelerate housing construction for which loans will be provided to citizens. “Logically, this will primarily contribute to the social aspect of the citizen and will also contribute to stimulating the local economy, especially the small and medium-sized companies, " Dr. Al Wardi added.
"Based on the Royal directives to promote the batches of 2014, 2016 and 2015 complete all formalities and then begin promotion system based on a project on proficiency system. This was an urgent popular demand, and this issue was addressed,” he said.
“This has a key several benefit of improving the purchasing power of citizens deserving of these promotions. From another perspective this will also improve productivity of employees and raise their morale to further stimulate productivity. In both cases, whether by raising employee productivity or raising the purchasing power of citizens’ standard of living, this will benefit the national economy, directly or indirectly," Dr Al Wardi pointed out.
Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Barashdi, Director General of Budget at the Ministry of Finance said in an interview: "The 2024 budget aims to achieve several economic and social goals, foremost of which is financial sustainability, achieving economic growth of no less than three percent, keeping inflation rates within three percent or less.”
“In addition the budget will continue to provide financial funds to provide services in basic sectors such as health, education, housing and other sectors, besides operating the Oman Future Fund, as well as maintaining other services and continuing development projects that were approved during the last budget."
"Regarding the financial statements, the 2024 budget has been built and prepared at an average price of $60 per barrel, with an average daily production of 1.0 million barrels per day," Al Barashdi added.
"Oil revenues (oil and gas) amounted to OMR7.5 billion, representing about 68 percent of total revenues, while non-oil revenues amounted to OMR3.5 billion, representing 32 percent," the Director General of Budget said.
He added that public spending amounted to OMR11.65 billion, and the total deficit amounted to OMR640 million. The deficit is porposed to be covered with price of oil at $60 per barrel and OMR240 million through borrowing besides OMR400 million through withdrawal from reserves.
Dr. Saeed bin Mubarak Al Mahrami, Professor of Finance at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), said through his official account: "The Sultanate of Oman was able to reduce public debt from OMR20.8 billion to OMR15.8 billion within three years, meaning it got rid of OMR5 billion.”
"The Sultanate of Oman also is committed to paying benefits (debt service) on time, which amounted to about OMR3 billion and thus it paid OMR8 billion within three years," Al Mahrami added.
