AMMAN — The
Lower House on Monday began debating the draft state budget and the
budgets of government units for the fiscal year 2022, in a session chaired by
Speaker
Abdul Karim Al-Doghmi and attended by Cabinet ministers.
اضافة اعلان
Estimated
total expenditures in this year’s budget are at JD10.6 billion, including
JD1.55 billion as capital expenditures, and projected public revenues are at
JD8.9 billion, 68 percent of which are taxes, 10 percent external grants, and
22 percent non-tax revenues, with a deficit of JD1.7 billion.
It envisages
growth at 2.7 percent by the end of the current year, inflation at 2.5 percent,
and an increase of JD848 million in foreign grants, as it seeks to raise the
ratio of domestic revenue coverage of current expenditures to 88.5 percent.
It also
forecasts total public debt will reach JD38.8 billion, or 114.7 per cent of
GDP, to drop to JD30.8 billion, or 91 per cent of GDP, excluding the Social
Security Corporation's debt.
Four
lawmakers who took the floor in today's session assailed the government’s
economic policies and International Monetary Fund "recipes" that sent
public debt soaring and led to an increase in poverty and unemployment, and the
"erosion" of the purchasing value of the dinar. They demanded salary
raises for workers and pensioners, attracting investments, utilizing natural
resources, as well as setting up a development region for the Jordanian badia
and better services for citizens across the various regions.
Earlier, the
MPs listened to the
Finance Committee's report on the draft budgets, which was
compiled after 46 days of meetings with more than 100 government and private
entities.
The report
said that the targeted 2.7 percent growth will be impacted by several factors,
including an increase in the allocations and incentives of some sectors and
uncertainty due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In its report, the committee
underscored the importance of revisiting investment exemptions and tying them
to the employment of Jordanians, in view of an "unprecedented" rise
in unemployment rates, as well as creating a national database on poverty and
defining needy families and individuals to direct aid for them.
The report
also included 25 recommendations to the government, key among which is wage
raises to pensioners and workers who earn less than JD300; developing the
transport, agriculture, tourism, and energy sectors; reducing water loss;
removing investment barriers; launching mega projects in partnership with the private
sector; improving tax revenue collection; introducing a fair and comprehensive
health insurance system; and revisiting electricity generation agreements.
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