Wednesday 30 / October / 2024
MUSCAT: While you are forced live from pay cheque to pay cheque, that too a slashed one due to the economic crisis, experts have a piece of advice to help you pull through: draw a daily micro budget, strictly adhere to it, put every rial to a job, cut out all extras and say a firm no to every single luxury.
“Wise financial planning is the most important thing in such a situation. Making a daily budget, apart from a monthly one, and sticking to it strictly, will help,” Jose Chacko, a Muscat-based financial analyst, said.
Hit by the dip in global oil prices, Oman released its OMR3 billion-deficit 2017 State Budget on January 1, making it clear that expenditure cuts will continue until the economy recovers.
Austerity measures adopted by the government hit the private sector badly, leading to salary delays and cuts and reduction in other allowances for both Omani and expatriate employees.
“You should check whether there are any services you’re paying for, that you no longer use and can cancel, like a gym membership or even your iPhone’s iTunes subscription. You can even call your cable company and ask about cheaper subscription rates or cut some expensive channels,”Jose added.
“You should also check whether you are paying interests or fines for delayed payments. Make the payments on time and save that money,” Jose said, adding that identifying your bad habits and cutting down expenses can also help your finances as well as health.
“If you smoke one pack of cigarettes, cut it down to half or quit altogether. It can help your daily budget and health, too,” Jose added. As companies’ bills are stuck with government due to cash crunch, a large number of employees are being forced to adjust to salary cuts, reduced medical insurance coverage and even shift to cheaper accommodation.
“My company forced me and my family to move to an apartment with a lesser rent. I had to agree because I need to stay here for a few more years. Also, they reduced the medical insurance coverage, too. It is quite hard to survive. I look for coupons and offers, which I never used to do in the past,” Shariful Rahman, a Bangladeshi national working as an accountant in a finance company, said.
“I used to go out for dinner with my family twice a month. Now, I do that just once a month as I have to live within my budget,” Shariful added.
Anu Shibu, a homemaker in Darsait, said she has taken a decision that she will never pay full price for anything.
“I purposefully look for coupons and online offers. Recently, there were offers in a hypermarket. I bought a few items, which I can gift when I go for a vacation in June to India. Usually, I used to do such shopping in June itself. But by making these purchases now, I saved a few rials,” Anu said.
Mohammed Fahad, an Omani taxi driver in Ruwi, also said it was quite hard to survive and he has adopted strict cost cutting measures to pull through.
“I have stopped roaming about with my friends after duty. You know that fuel prices have gone up. Why should I waste fuel unnecessarily? I have stopped roaming in my car after work. Nowadays, I meet my friends only
in our neighbourhood,” Mohammed added.
Alkesh Joshi, a director at the Tax Advisory Services with Ernst and Young, said one needs to revisit the basics for surviving the current difficult environment.
“Understanding a few key financial concepts will help one make the most of one’s money. The discipline of setting down and working to a budget can help people stay in control of their money,” Akilesh said.
According to Akilesh, a great way to derive maximum value from available resources is to use technology to its fullest advantage.
“The use of online and internet technologies to undertake work processes could help reduce expenditures relating to overseas travel, high utility bills and communication costs,” Akilesh said.
Akilesh said companies should explore enterprise-wide opportunities for introducing automation, renewable energy resources like solar energy systems and enterprise resources-planning software systems into their day to day operations to achieve efficient use of transportation, air conditioning and water usage systems.
“Companies could encourage staff to attend meetings via conference calls rather than travel to undertake business,” he said, adding that although the initial costs may appear higher, in the long run new technologies would lead to significant business advantages and savings.
Oman’s 2017 State Budget projected a smaller deficit but maintained tight curbs on spending because of low oil prices, which are hurting state revenues.
Government spending this year is projected at OMR11.7 billion while revenues will be OMR8.7 billion.
The government’s original 2016 budget plan projected OMR11.9 billion rials in spending, OMR8.6 billion in revenues and an OMR3.3 billion deficit.
The actual deficit has turned out to be much bigger than expected this year. It was calculated at OMR4.8 billion in the first 10 months of 2016, according to official data.
