The Lower House’s Financial Committee on Wednesday began its discussion of the 2022 draft state budget law, and budgets of independent public institutions.
In the meeting, chaired by committee head, MP Mohammad Al-Saudi and attended by Ministers of Finance, Muhammad Al-Assis, Planning and International Cooperation, Nasser Shraideh, the committee discussed budgets of Ministry Finance, its departments, and the Planning Ministry, in addition to the Central Bank’s budget.
Al-Saudi said that the committee, at the end of its discussions, will present its report to the Lower House to take the appropriate decision.
Al-Saudi added that the committee has set an extensive timetable for discussing the draft budget and the budget of government units, which will extend to three weeks, as it allocated a date for each ministry to discuss its budget.
In turn, Minister Al-Ississ said that the government has presented, for the first time in years, a budget that is extremely accurate in revenues and expenditures, saying, “One of the financial issues that we used to encounter in the past is the inaccuracy of expectations in the volume of revenues, which may cause us problems.”
He added, “For the first time in years, our revenues have exceeded estimations, as we exceeded the income tax and sales tax, so this is the third budget to be referred to Parliament without raising the tax and fees and without imposing new taxes or fees.”
For his part, Minister Shraideh said that the Covid pandemic has affected various economic sectors and posed a great challenge to everyone, indicating that unemployment rates had reached unprecedented figures.
Shraideh added that most economic sectors were affected by the pandemic, lauding the government’s efforts to deal with the pandemic and reduce burdens and damages on citizens and economic sectors, in addition to increasing support and attention to the health system and providing vaccines.
The Central Bank Deputy Governor and the general managers of Finance Ministry departments briefed the meeting on their institutions’ budget, noting that most of this budget covers salaries and current expenses.
Source: Jordan news Agency