During his visit to the General Budget Department on Thursday, November 22, 2012, the Prime Minister, Dr. Abdullah Nsour, after reviewing the preliminary draft of the General Budget Law for 2013, highlighted the importance of continued enhancement of transparency in the preparation of the draft budget law, and clarity of budget figures interpretation.  His Excellency instructed to finalize the draft Budget Law and draft Government Units Budget Law as soon as possible to be discussed and approved by the Council of Ministers.

His Excellency the Minister of Finance, Dr. Suleiman Hafez, said that the 2013 budget is noted for its plausibility and transparency, considering economic and political developments on the regional and global levels, and stressed that the budget comes in line with the pillars of the National Program for Economic and Financial Reform, which aims at controlling and rationing public spending- current spending in particular.

His Excellency the Director General of the General Budget Department, Dr. Ismail Zaghloul, presented the preliminary features of the draft Budget Law for the fiscal year of 2013, stressing that it will be a quality budget taking into consideration the developments in the Kingdom.  His Excellency also presented the main assumptions for budget estimation, paying particular attention to exclude any uncertain foreign grants from public revenues.

His Excellency also added that the estimation of expenditures in the draft budget law considers the continuity of delivering subsidies to the eligible citizens instead of subsidizing oil derivatives, with continued subsidy to bread and fodders.  In addition, the government adopted a set of measures for rationing government spending, such as confine government hiring as deemed necessary, stop buying government cars and furniture, and control operating expenses such as electricity, water, fuel, travelling, phones, and others.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the General Budget Department.  The Prime Minister called for another meeting next week to review the initial draft of the Government Units Budget Law for 2013.