Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan has said that "our goal is to reduce the burden on the Saudi people, private sector companies, institutions and expatriates."
The Finance Minister has addressed a press conference with the Ministers on Budget 2022 on Monday.It may be recalled that Saudi Arabia yesterday announced the budget of 2022 in which the expected revenue is 1045 billion riyals which will be 12.4% more than the budget of 2021. The increase in revenue will be possible due to rising oil prices.
Expenditure in the new budget is estimated at 955 billion riyals. The surplus budget will be 90 billion riyals. In 2021, the revenue will exceed 85 billion riyals.
According to Al Arabiya Net, the finance minister said that the budget has changed the ranking of revenue. Following Aramco's entry, a new budget approach has been adopted. Expected oil prices were not taken into account.
Al-Jadaan said: "There is no expectation that the budget will distribute revenue from investment funds in the coming years. The emergency distribution of PIF took place in 2020. This will not happen in 2021.
The Finance Minister said that there was no intention to transfer more assets from the Central Bank to the Investment Fund. The King Salman Park project will be completed with the national budget.
The Finance Minister said that one trillion riyals were withdrawn from safe assets during the deficit budget which lasted for many years. The loans were taken separately.
The Finance Minister said that the privatization of the public sector is in progress. The education, tourism and sports sectors will be privatized.
"We have set up a center to manage government debt," he said. It handles government debt matters and deals with government institutions such as the Public Investment Fund.
The finance minister said that "some infrastructure projects may have to be borrowed for funding." State-owned companies obtain loans under the auspices of the National Debt Agency.
Al-Jadaan said that during 2022, all surplus income will be transferred to safe assets. After that the Public Investment Fund and the National Development Fund will be transferred. At the moment, there is no intention to transfer funds from secured assets. Funds have reasonable cash. That's enough money for the funds to fund their projects. "
