Oman registers budget deficit of OMR826.5 million

Muscat: Oman government registered a budget deficit of OMR826.5 million until the end of June 2020. Meanwhile, the budget deficit for the same period of 2019 was OMR660.6 million, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The total revenue of the Oman government fell 12.4 per cent to OMR4.83 billion until the end of June 2020, over the same period of the previous year due to fall in oil prices.
The net oil revenue of the Oman government fell 16.3 per cent to OMR2.57 billion until the end of June 2020, from OMR3.07 billion for the same period of the previous year, the report added. Revenue from natural gas fell 21.2 per cent to OMR740.8 million, while customs duty and corporate income tax contributed OMR83.8 million and OMR350.9 million, respectively, during the period. In addition, capital revenue fell to OMR16.4 million until the end of June 2020, falling 52.3 per cent over the same period of 2019.
As far as expenditures are concerned, total public expenditure fell by 8.4 per cent to OMR5.65 billion until the end of June 2020. This is against an expenditure of OMR6.17 billion for the same period of 2019. Of this, current expenditure fell by 0.6 per cent to OMR4.28 billion, while investment expenditure fell 25.6 per cent to OMR 816.9 million until the end of June 2020.
The participation and support dropped by 56 per cent to OMR128.9 million until the end of June 2020 from OMR292.8 million for the same period of 2019.
Oman government’s total public expenditure in 2019 stood at OMR13.06 billion, with total revenue of OMR10.41 billion, leaving a deficit of OMR2.65 billion.