Muscat - The state's general revenues increased by 12 percent until the end of February 2023 to RO2.148 billion, compared to RO 1.918 billion in the same period in 2022.
The financial performance bulletin issued by the Ministry of Finance said that the increase is mainly due to the increase in oil and gas revenues, which accounted for about 78 percent of public revenues, and the increase in current revenues by 51 percent.
The bulletin showed that net oil revenues increased until the end of last February by 5 percent, recording about RO 1.153 billion, compared to collecting RO 1.94 billion until the end of February 2022.
This led to an increase in average production to about 1,064 thousand barrels per day, and gas revenues increased by two percent to RO521 million, compared to the same period in 2022.
The current revenues collected until the end of last February increased by RO160 million to RO471 million, compared to the collection of RO311 million in the same period in 2022.
Public spending until the end of February was RO1.776 billion, an increase of RO68 million, or four percent over actual spending for the same period in 2022.
This is due to the increase in current expenses, contributions, and other expenses by RO108 million, while gas purchase and transportation expenses decreased by RO132 million as a result of transferring expenses to Integrated Gas Company.
The development expenditures of ministries and civil units amounted to about RO50 million, with a disbursement rate of six percent of the total development spending (RO900 million) for the year 2023.
As for the total contributions and other expenses, it amounted to about RO133 million, an increase of 133 percent, compared to RO57 million in the same period in 2022.
Subsidies for oil products and support for the water sector until the end of February were over RO47 million, while the transfer to the provision for debt repayment amounted to about RO 66 million.
By the end of February 2023, the state's general budget recorded a financial surplus amounting to RO372 million, compared to a surplus of RO210 million during the same period of 2022, which will be directed to repaying part of government loans.
It is noteworthy that the government was able, by the end of the first quarter of this year, to pay the number of obligations estimated at about RO1.1 billion, thus reducing the volume of public debt to about RO16.6 billion by the end of March 2023.
The most prominent initial results during the first three years of the implementation of the medium-term financial plan (2021-2024) were represented in the decrease in the breakeven point of the oil price to RO68 dollars per barrel, the increase in non-oil revenues, the reduction of the total public debt from the GDP, and the improvement of the credit rating of the Sultanate of Oman, apart from developing a system for social protection, restructuring pension funds, and other direct and indirect results.
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