Sultanate’s first quarter revenues at RO 1.7 bn

MUSCAT: The total revenues of the Sultanate recorded RO 1.7 billion in the first quarter of this year compared to RO 1.5 billion during the corresponding period last year. The general budget deficit stood at RO 1.5 billion, down from RO 1.7 billion, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). Net revenues, after transferring to the sovereign wealth fund, from the oil sector amounted to RO 1.31 billion, RO 335 million from the gas sector while non-oil revenues amounted to RO 297 million. The total expenditure stood at RO 3.218 billion, including RO 700 unspent allocations. Current spending stood at RO 1.8 billion, while investment spending amounted to RO 568 million. It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Finance’s statement on the 2017 State Budget has estimated the total revenues at RO 8.7 billion, an increase of 18 per cent on the actual revenues of 2016. As per the initial statistics by NCSI, the number of SMEs registered with the Public Authority for SMEs Development (Riyada) as of the end of April 2017, stood at 3,581.