Senate endorses 2019 budget, recommends transparency measures

AMMAN — The Senate on Sunday endorsed the 2019 state budget bill and the draft law governing the budgets of independent public institutions, as referred by the Lower House, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The state budget draft law forecasts the GDP for the current year to increase by 2.3 per cent, 2.5 per cent next year and 2.7 per cent in 2021.

The budget statement referred by the Lower House to the Senate estimated the volume of local revenue in 2019 to reach JD8.01 billion, citing a 14.8 per cent increase from 2018 that is primarily attributed to the rise in tax and non-tax revenues by 15.9 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively.

The Senate's Financial and Economic Committee rapporteur, Issa Murad, said the committee’s report included 29 recommendations, the most significant of which include the need to address distortions in sales tax, following up on the merging of independent government institutions and implementing the economic reform programme supported by the International Monetary Fund.

The recommendations also included commitment on the government’s part to securing sufficient allocations, especially for the operational expenses of security bodies, as well as slashing public expenditures.

To ensure transparency and accountability in case the allocations are insufficient, the report said, the government must issue a budget supplement ahead of any spending which is not stipulated in the budget.