The Kuwait’s monthly follow-up report revealed that the public budget deficit during the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2020/2021 amounted to about KD4.778 billion by the end of last November, an increase of 598 percent compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, when the deficit reached KD684.56 million, Al Rai daily reported.
According to the report issued by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the total capital spending from April to November amounted to about 21.3 percent of the budget estimate for the same period, as KD493.53 million were spent, compared to KD2.311 billion estimate in the budget compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, a difference of KD1.818 billion.
The total revenues achieved by Kuwait during the period from April 1, 2020 to November 30, 2020 amounted to KD6.1 billion dinars, while the total expenditures of government agencies amounted to about KD8.5 billion dinars.
Oil and non-oil revenues
The Ministry of Finance report stated that the total oil revenues amounted to KD5.2 billion dinars during the first 8 months of the fiscal year, which is equivalent to 93.8% of the estimated KD5.6 billion dinars in the state’s general budget, while non-oil revenues amounted to KD882.8 million dinars, which represents only 47.1% of total non-oil revenues, thus total revenues for the period amounted to KD6.16 billion dinars, representing 82.2% of the estimated budget.
Current expenditures amounted to 52.9 percent of the budgeted estimate, as KD8.045 billion dinars were spent out of an estimated KD19.24 billion dinars, while liabilities during the aforementioned period reached about KD2.13 billion dinars.
In addition, the MoF statistics revealed that capital spending during the period reached at the end of November (the first 8 months of the fiscal year) only 21.3% of the total amount allocated to it in the budget, which is equivalent to KD493.5 million dinars out of KD2.3 billion dinars allocated.
Taxes and fees
Revenues from taxes and fees amounted to KD289.35 million dinars during the period from April to November, accounting for 49.4 percent of the total budget estimate of KD586.2 million dinars. The state collected about 39.4 percent of the estimate for Chapter Three (social contributions) during the eight months, about KD43.36 million dinars, a difference of KD66.63 million from the estimated KD110 million dinars.
This confirms the continued decline in capital spending in exchange for the high rate of current spending, which negatively affected the value of projects, and this is mainly due to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
It should be noted that the data included in this report do not accurately represent the period’s expenditures due to the delay of many government agencies in transmitting data on salaries and disbursements in the external offices of some government agencies, as well as some support expenses that are subject to accounting until the end of the period.
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