MUSCAT, Jan 1 - Oman Budget 2019, ratified by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos on Tuesday, envisages a prudent spending outlay with focus on social welfare measures. The budget, which aims at achieving financial sustainability and expenditure efficiency, predicts over three per cent growth in the current fiscal.
It targets an expenditure of RO 12.9 billion, which is RO 400 million more than the previous year.
The budget projects a revenue of RO 10.1 billion, including RO 7.4 billion from oil and gas, accounting for 74 per cent of total revenue.
The revenue from oil is based on a conservative oil price of $58 per barrel.
The remaining 26 per cent is expected from non-oil sources, which is estimated at RO 2.7 billion.
The current expenditures include salaries, annual allowance, entitlements of employees and cost of promoting the 2010 batch of Omani government employees of RO 3.5 billion. It also includes operating expenses of RO 0.6 billion.
fiscal deficit
The salaries, annual allowance and entitlements account for 76 per cent of total current expenditure of ministries and government units.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, 86 per cent of the budget deficit, which is RO 2.8 billion, will be financed through external and domestic borrowings.
The rest of the deficit, estimated at RO 400 million, will be covered by drawing on reserves.
“This comes in line with the guidelines set out by the government to maintain sovereign reserve funds and rely upon borrowing, notably external borrowing, to finance the deficit,” said the statement.
The fiscal framework for the 2019 budget aims to achieve a set of goals and priorities, primarily financial sustainability, to enable the national economy to continue to achieve the targeted growth rate and completion of economic diversification programmes, said the statement.
Spending on development projects will not be cut to ensure the completion of all ongoing projects without delay and ensure the relevant payments are made on time, it said.
big role of private sector
In this regard, the budget aims to enhance foreign and domestic investments and enable the private sector to play a greater role in managing the wheel of the economy and creating more jobs for the Omani youths.
“The government attaches great importance to raising the level of basic social services for citizens and the budget aims to preserve the achievements made in this regard,” the statement said.
Education and health, housing, social security and welfare measures take the lion’s share of 39 per cent of total spending.
Training Fund
Training and employment As part of the government’s policy to enhance the skills of Omani job-seekers, the National Training Fund shall continue in 2019 its plan to train 6,170 trainees along with more groups of trainees.
“This is being done in an effort to continue to build human capacity in Oman and bridge the skills gap between education and job market needs,” the statement said.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
