The Jordanian Parliament approved the draft general budget law for 2021 by majority, with a deficit of 1.97 billion dinars (equivalent to 2.758 billion US dollars), as well as the law on budgets of government units.
At the conclusion of the parliament’s discussions about the budget, Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh affirmed that “the current fiscal year’s budget is the most difficult in the history of the Kingdom, as the government seeks to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic by balancing the health and economic sides, because preponderance of the health aspect comes from a responsibility.
Al-Khasawneh clarified that "the government seeks disclosure and does not make promises," noting that "a revolution in the field of investment is required to achieve real economic growth, and this requires addressing a lot."
For his part, Minister of Finance Mohamad Al-Ississ considered that "the Corona pandemic has deepened the crises afflicting the national economy, as the volume of Jordanian foreign trade declined, and led to a setback for the great recovery recorded by the tourism sector in 2019, and remittances from Jordanians working abroad declined in light of the negative impact of the pandemic on the economies of the countries that employ Jordanian labor force," noting that "reducing the budget deficit in an instantaneous manner will entail vast sacrifices, so either taxes and fees will be cancelled, and this government will not do it in this budget, or stop fulfilling government internal and external obligations."
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
