AMMAN — The
Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 2023 general budget draft law, estimated by
Minister of Finance
Mohamad Al-Ississ at JD11.4 billion.
اضافة اعلان
The inflation rate
for next year, Ississ said, is expected to reach 3.8 percent, while real GDP
will grow “at the same rate as in 2022, which is 2.7 percent”.
Yusuf Mansur,
former minister of state for economic affairs, said that “there is nothing new
in the new draft; domestic revenues cover 92 per cent of the current expenditure,
which means that the government will have to borrow in order to cover the
current expenditure”, which consists mainly of payments to public sector
employees.
This, he said,
makes it very difficult for any minister of finance to make significant changes
to the public budget.
Mansur added that
capital expenditures allocated for new investments form only 2 percent of the
general budget. The solution, he said, is to use loans for investments that
would stimulate the economy instead of using them only to repay debts.
“Using new loans to
repay debts only means accumulating more debt interest,” he said.
Economist Hussam
Ayesh described spending on the repayment of debt interest, which makes up 16
per cent of the current expenditures, as “money poured down the drain”. It is
money obtained “through pressuring economic sectors and the citizens”, he said.
Ayesh does not
agree with considering foreign aid as a source of government revenues, because
it “cannot be guaranteed or controlled”, and could affect the total budget
deficit.
He said that the
budget should be given based on “performance, production, goals, efficiency,
quality, and results. Also, it is crucial to review the expenditures taking
into consideration the results of the recent report of the Audit Bureau”.
Ayesh asked for
changing the public budget draft, to bring it in line with the
Economic Modernization Vision.
The 2023 general budget bill was sent to Parliament on
Sunday; it is expected to be discussed in the next month.
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