The government has stepped up its efforts to diversify sources of income, in conjunction with the fiscal balance programme by reducing dependence on oil revenues as the main source of financing the budget, according to the Finance and National Economy Ministry.The expected public debt balance for 2023 and 2024 will depend on what is agreed upon with the legislative authority when preparing the state’s general budget, it said.This came in the ministry’s views on inquiries and requests regarding the draft new budget law by legislators, a copy of which is available with our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.A joint executive-legislative meetings scheduled to be held yesterday, to discuss the draft law on the state’s general budget for the fiscal years 2023-2024 has been postponed to later this week, Akhbar Al Khaleej reported.The ministry said the interest on debt is expected to reach BD767 million in 2023 and BD786m in 2024, according to current estimates.Regarding the reduction of the state’s public debt from BD16.9 billion to BD16.7bn, the ministry pointed out that the decrease in the public debt in 2022 was mainly due to the reduction in the value of borrowing against benefits in the same year.Part of the financing needs for 2022 was provided by increasing borrowing in the fiscal year 2021, in addition to postponing part of the borrowing in the fiscal year 2022 to the fiscal year 2023 due to the conditions of the global financial markets.The ministry pointed out that the contributions of government investments and their returns have been raised compared with the state’s general budget for the fiscal years 2021 and 2022. (ICE Doha)

Fonte notizia: Gulf Daily News