AMMAN — The
Cabinet approved the draft general budget
law for the fiscal year 2023, during their session on Wednesday, the Jordan
News Agency, Petra, reported.
اضافة اعلان
After Wednesday’s session, the draft law will be referred to
Parliament.
Minister of Finance Mohamad Al-Ississ and Minister of
Government Communications Faisal Shboul announced the details of the draft law
during their press conference held Tuesday at the Ministry of Finance.
At the conference, Ississ stated that the 2023 budget is
estimated to be JD11.4 billion. He added that the inflation rate for next year
is expected to reach 3.8 percent, “one of the best rates in the world,” he
said, according to Al-Mamlaka TV.
Ississ said that real GDP in 2023 will grow "at the same
rate as 2022, which is 2.7 percent," adding that "the nominal growth
rate is 6.6 percent".
The current account deficit of the balance of payments as a
percentage of GDP will "reduce" from 7.9 percent to 6.1 percent,
according to the finance minister.
Public revenues are expected to reach JD9.6 billion in 2023, he
said, a 7.4 percent increase from 2022, and a 9.6 percent increase from the 2022
recalculation.
He added that domestic revenues will rise to “JD8.8 billion,
an increase of 10.4 percent over the year 2022.” Tax revenues will rise 11.7
percent, reaching JD6.6 billion, he said, without raising existing or levying
any new taxes of fees.
The income tax will rise by 14.4 percent due to tax
department efforts to combat tax evasion and tax avoidance, said Ississ.
Non-tax revenues will rise to JD2.1 billion, an increase of
6.6 percent, which is the same as the nominal growth rate of the economy in
2023, he said.
External grants are expected to reach JD802 million, he said,
an increase of 0.8 percent from 2022.
Ississ noted capital spending will maintain at a rate close
to the ratio this year and that allocations to implement the
Economic Modernization Vision will be close to JD355 million.
The current account deficit of the balance of payments as a percentage of GDP will “reduce” from 7.9 percent to 6.1 percent.
Meanwhile, allocations for the administrative reform plan in
the 2023 budget will reach JD40 million, he said.
“In 2023, the primary budget deficit will be reduced from 3.4
percent to 2.9 percent," he said, noting that there will be a similar
decrease in the public debt as there was this year.
He credited this decrease to efforts to combat tax and
customs evasion and avoidance.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet
approved a draft law amending the
Real Estate Sale Tax Law with the aim of
encouraging investment in the real estate and housing sectors.
Under the 2023 budget
draft law, the real-estate sale tax rate was reduced to 3 percent instead of the
current 4 percent, and the Department of Lands and Survey was approved to
refund the real estate sale tax collected for incomplete transactions.
The bill also exempts
from real estate sales tax transactions carried out murabaha, an Islamic sales
contract offered by Islamic banks, and other financial institutions conducting
similar transactions.
The Cabinet also
approved a draft law amending the Jordanian Nationality Law for 2022 to align
texts related to regaining nationality. Under the new amendments, Jordanian women
married to foreigners who renounced their Jordanian citizenship and acquired their
husbands’ nationality through marriage are granted the right to regain their
Jordanian nationality. Currently, they are only able to regain their
citizenship in the event of divorce.
The Cabinet also approved an amendment to the Professional
Work Regulation Law, with the intention of simplifying commercial transactions
to support the sector. The amendment also empowers the Ministry of Labor to carry
out its duties in this context.
Jordan's Stakeholders’ Strategy for Land
Governance and Management for 2022–2030 was also approved.
The amendment aims to help ministries, government
institutions, international organizations, and civil society organizations
launch and engage in constructive dialogue to create a roadmap for transparent
land governance methods.
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