Bahrain’s 2021-2022 state budget approved

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Council of Representatives yesterday approved the Kingdom of Bahrain’s 2021-2022 state budget.

Upon submission to parliament, the Finance and National Economy Ministry highlighted the government’s unprecedented efforts to mitigate the effects of lower oil prices and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cross-government success in tightly controlling recurrent government expenditure (excluding emergency spend) was emphasised, which was BD63 million under budget in 2020.

The Ministry also emphasised the government’s unwavering commitment to the Fiscal Balance Programme’s targets. Past reforms implemented under the programme include a government-wide spending review, creation of spending efficiency taskforces, the roll-out of a voluntary retirement scheme for public sector workers, and the implementation of VAT.

The Ministry underlined that strong economic growth projections – 5% for 2021 – demonstrated Bahrain’s underlying competitiveness and strong economic fundamentals, which will provide the foundations for fiscal recovery in the near- and medium-terms. The state budget’s fiscal results and projections for 2021- 2022 show the Ministry expects total revenues to reach BD2,406 million in 2021 and BD2,457 million in 2022.

The government expenditure is expected to total BD3,614 million in 2021 and BD3,569 million in 2022, meaning the overall deficit is expected to be BD1,208 million in 2021 reducing to BD1,112 million in 2022.

Announcing the state budget, the Ministry outlined the new measures taken which include: the creation of a revenue taskforce to support the government’s drive to increase non-oil revenues and encourage partnerships with the private sector in the provision of government services; doubling of Mumtalakat’s contribution to Government revenues; and increasing the size of the project's budget.

The Ministry noted that these measures complement the significant actions taken by the government since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.