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Ammon News -

Finance Minister Mohammad Al-Ississ said Tuesday that the sales tax accounts for half of the government's domestic revenues, or about JD3.7 billion, a tax structure defect that needs to be addressed, and the only to do that is to seriously combat tax evasion and restore the targeted growth strategy.

Addressing the Parliamentary Finance Committee debating the 2021 state budget draft, he said that the budget was built on the assumption that there will be no return to COVID-19 lockdowns, explaining that the projected revenues are "logical" in case of no curfews, which cost the economy a whopping JD1 billion.

Al-Ississ told the lawmakers that the government will carry out quarterly reviews of the budget, and that reform measures will be geared toward reducing current expenditures, and will not in any way affect capital expenditures.

He also said that the government incurred the interest on amounts that are part of the Central Bank's program to bankroll small- and medium-sized enterprises valued at JD500 million, at an interest rate of 2 per cent, an annual value of JD10 million.

The government bore this amount to infuse it to the national economy, which was in desperate need of liquidity, he pointed out.

The minister said there were no dictates by the International Monetary Fund in its financing programme with the Kingdom.

"There are no economic dictates or conditions by the IMF, and the financing programme's articles were written by Jordanian hands. The program identified the economic problem in Jordan as weak growth, and that the biggest challenge to the economy is the high unemployment rate," he told the MPs.

Commenting on the service of public debt, Al-Ississ said that his ministry is currently looking for low-cost mechanisms in the global financial markets to get out of the high-cost loans. He said the Kingdom's programme with the IMF extends until 2024 and aims to reduce the public debt to GDP ratio to below 80 per cent.

Head of the Lower House Financial Committee, MP Nimir Sleihat, said the panel had requested clarifications from the Ministry of Finance about the budget figures, including current and capital expenditures and the high deficit.

He said the committee recommended reducing customs bracket numbers, expanding the mechanisms to combat tax and customs evasion and cutting current expenditures of the ministry and its institutions.