Muscat: Oman government’s budget deficit fell by 0.1 per cent to OMR2.63 billion at the end of December 2019. The budget deficit for the same period of 2018 was at OMR2.65 billion, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The total revenues of the Sultanate's government declined by 4.9 per cent to OMR10.410 billion at end of December 2019, over the same period of the previous year due to fall in oil prices.
The net oil revenues of the Sultanate's government dropped by 5.7 per cent to OMR6.16 billion at the end of December 2019 from OMR6.53 billion for the same period of the previous year, the report added.
Revenues of natural gas fell by 12.7 per cent to OMR1,773.3 million while customs duty and corporate income tax contributed OMR213.1 million and OMR617.9 million respectively during the period. Also, capital revenues stood at OMR69.7 million in 2019, falling 47.8 per cent over the same period of 2018.
As far as expenditure is concerned, total public expenditure declined by 3.9 per cent to OMR13,063.6 million till December 2019. This is against an expenditure of OMR13,599.2 million for the same period of 2018. Of this, current expenditure fell by 13.6 per cent to OMR8,441.7 million while investment expenditure dropped by 19.1 per cent to OMR2,337.8 million till December 2019.
The participation and support fell by 13.8 per cent to OMR808.1 million at the end of December 2019 from OMR937.9 million for the same period of 2018.
The government’s total public expenditure in 2019 stood at OMR13,063.6 million, with total revenues of OMR10,410.1 million, leaving a deficit of OMR2,480.4 million.