With the stability in oil prices at acceptable levels, financial sources expect the oil revenues in the budget for the current fiscal 2022-2023 to exceed the 25 billion dinars barrier for the first time in years, after revenues during the past three quarters of the fiscal year was about 20 billion dinars, reports Al- Qabas daily.
The same sources indicated that the average oil prices since the beginning of the current fiscal in April 2022 until now have witnessed a significant increase over the breakeven price in the general budget estimated at $80 per barrel, as it reached about $113 per barrel in the first quarter, while it declined during the second quarter.
During the fiscal year, it reached about $103 per barrel, while in the third quarter, with the decline in crude prices, the average reached $88 per barrel, bringing the average selling price of a Kuwaiti oil barrel to $101.8 during the nine months of the current fiscal year.
The sources expected that oil prices will continue their upward trajectory during the last quarter of the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31; bringing the total oil revenues to about 25 billion dinars, which is the highest in 8 years, and therefore the budget will return to recording a surplus of two billion thus ending the series of financial deficits, which since the beginning of 2015 totaled about 39 billion dinars, which were covered by the General Reserve Fund, which at that time was forced to give up assets in order to provide “cash” to finance the general budget deficit.
During the coming period, the government is scheduled to announce a draft budget for the new fiscal year 2023-2024, in which it is expected to increase the percentage of current expenditures, with the budget bearing a number of expenditure items that the government announced to take to improve citizens’ lives.
On a related level, the government continues its plans to increase non-oil revenues and maximize its contribution to the budget, by delving into the file of financial and economic reforms during the coming period, whether by re-pricing public services and increasing some fees or through plans to develop a mechanism for collecting state revenues and selling non-government real estate assets. exploited, and reassessment for the usufruct of state lands and real estate.
Source: Mubasher
