Deputies to discuss draft budget next Sunday

AMMAN — The Lower House will begin deliberating the 2015 draft state budget law next Sunday.

Adjourning Sunday’s session, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh said MPs will start debating the budget bill as of next Sunday after receiving the notes and recommendations of the Financial Committee. 

The government referred the 2015 draftstate budget law to the House on November 24, 2014. 

Yousef Qorneh, who heads the Lower House Financial Committee, told The Jordan Times last week that the panel has completed its discussions, which lasted around two months, and entailed holding 56 meetings with all government agencies and ministries over their expenditures. 

The committee has disagreed with the government over the assumption related to the base price of crude oil in the draft law, lowering it from $100 a barrel to $60 a barrel. 

In its report of recommendations referred to the Lower House over the weekend, the committee said its decision to adopt $60 as the base price per barrel was taken based upon forecasts by OPEC and oil futures markets that prices will continue to hover around $50 a barrel this year. 

The panel said the 40 per cent drop in global oil prices would reduce the Kingdom’s oil bill by nearly $2 billion, in addition to its positive impact on the current account deficit, consumers and the country’s foreign reserves. 

The government estimated the budget deficit in the draft law at JD688 million after foreign grants, compared with JD911 million recorded in 2014. The ratio of the deficit to the gross domestic product would be around 2.5 per cent.

Also on Sunday, the House endorsed the new amendments to the Sharia Courts Law and referred the 2015 draft amendments to the securities law to the Economic and Investment Committee for review.  

Before discussing the scheduled laws, some MPs called on the government to build a concrete fence on both sides of King Abdullah Canal in Northern Shuneh after five family members died when their car overturned and fell into the canal on Saturday.