AMMAN —
Minister of Finance
Mohamad Al-Ississ affirmed the government’s commitment not
to raise the tax burden on citizens, indicating that there will be no new taxes
or fees in the 2023 budget.
اضافة اعلان
In an extensive interview with Ad-Dustour
daily, published on Sunday, Ississ defended the Kingdom’s fiscal policy,
saying: “We were able to overcome multiple crises with a prudent fiscal policy
that did not impose a penny in taxes on citizens,” noting that the
effectiveness of the fiscal and monetary policies enabled Jordan to face the
difficult challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and the
Russian-Ukrainian war.
He said that unemployment remains the biggest
challenge Jordan faces, noting that the solution is to accelerate economic
reforms aimed at attracting more investments that raise growth rates and create
jobs.
“We have recently completed the fourth pillar
of the tax reform system and thus we have legally closed sources of tax evasion
and tax avoidance. Closing tax loopholes will help us cover the budget
deficit,” Ississ said.
The minister said the
Economic Modernization Vision 2033 is realistic and focuses on attracting investments, hence the link
between various visions.
“The Public Sector Development plan limits
bureaucracy that obstructs investments, and for this reason, the draft laws
presented to Parliament, which are the
draft investment environment law, the draft competition law and the draft
companies law, all fit with the Economic Modernization Vision,” Ississ added.
Concerning figures and indicators of the
general state budget in the first half of this year, the minister said that
revenues are as expected, pointing out that revenues in 2021 exceeded the
projections by about JD100 million.
“As minister of finance, I am fully committed
to everything stated in the 2022 budget, and the estimates will be identical to
what we expected, if not better,” he added.
He said that a public investment management
unit was recently formed in the Ministry of Planning, having the mission to
receive all proposed capital projects, study their economic impact, and
determine whether those projects are governmental, or will be carried out in
partnership with the private sector, or if they are entirely private sector
projects. He said that priorities are for projects that create job
opportunities and those that support the development of governorates, employ
youth and empower women.
Ississ said that support
for the tourism sector remains a priority and the government has raised
allocations to the tourism sector by JD50 million in the 2022 budget, and that
the same figure is specified in the budgets for the next two years.
He added that a plan to develop the
agricultural sector was recently approved by the Council of Ministers, and as a
result, the allocations for the Ministry of Agriculture were raised in the 2022
and 2023 budgets.
Ississ said that for the first time money was
allocated to industry through the “Industry Support Fund”, with the aim of
shifting from providing protection to raising competitiveness.
He praised the monetary policy pursued by the
Central Bank of Jordan, stressing that it provided monetary stability and
contributed to financial stability, which was reflected recently by the Fitch
agency’s rating of Jordan at “BB-” with a stable future outlook.
On the investment environment bill currently
before the Lower House, the minister said that it expresses the government’s
absolute belief in Jordan’s ability to be a strong competitor to attract
domestic and foreign investments, adding that it works to remove bureaucratic
obstacles and offers incentives and exemptions for investments that create
jobs, while reassuring the investor through the stability of legislation.
Regarding relations with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ississ said it is an advisory body that “works with us and
not a party that imposes conditions on us”, and that the relationship is based
on trust, mutual respect and open communication.
He added that Jordan continues to carry out
economic reforms aimed at restoring the momentum of growth, leading to job
creation, while staying away from increasing the tax burden on citizens and,
instead, adopting measures to combat tax evasion.
“The fourth review conducted by the IMF was
one of the most important; the fund praised the fiscal and monetary policies,
which helped maintain our macroeconomic stability,” he said.
“This is what opened the doors for us to
successfully complete the process of issuing eurobond bonds in the global
market at a value of $650 million at a fixed coupon price of 7.75 percent,
maturing after five and a half years, at the beginning of 2028,” he added.
Ississ said that although the issuance
targeted a subscription volume of $500 million, the offers submitted by
investors amounted to more than three times the volume, with a total value of
about $1.8 billion.
“We have received offers from the largest
institutional investors in the world, and this is an indication of the
confidence of the most important investment houses in the stability of the
future Jordanian economy,” he said.
There will be a fifth review of the
Jordanian economy by the IMF this fall, he said.
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