The figures announced by the Ministry of Finance about the amount of social support in the 2022 budget indicate that this support accounts for about (41%) of the total estimated expenditures for 2002, without including the value of electricity subsidy in it, and this means that the remaining (59%) of the The general budget will be allocated to all the rest of the expenditures such as salaries, wages, compensation, paying part of the internal debt, spending on investment in the public sector and spending on infrastructure projects.
If we go back to the 2021 budget figures, we will find that social support in it also accounts for (41%) of the general budget expenditures without including electricity subsidies in it.
By comparing the two numbers of support between 2021 (3500) billion pounds and the
number in 2022 (5529) billion pounds, we find that the value of the expected support has increased by approximately (58%), knowing that this support is directed to oil derivatives, bread (flour and yeast), and the Fund The National Social Aid Fund, and the Agricultural Production Support Fund.
But this subsidy figure is one of the very estimated figures whose value contained in the budget is unreliable, and the reason for this is that the government during 2021 took some measures that affected the amount of support towards actually reducing it, such as raising the prices of subsidized materials such as bread, diesel, gasoline, sugar and rice, in order to Reduce the subsidy amounts, an example of this happened in July of 2021 when the government raised the price of a liter of diesel from (185) to (500) pounds, It raised the price of a bag of bread from (100) pounds to (200) pounds, and it raised the price of a kilo of subsidized sugar from (500) pounds to (1000) and subsidized rice from (400) pounds to (900) pounds, and the last was a few days ago when the price was raised Subsidized gasoline ranges from (750) pounds to (1,100) pounds.
In addition, the government is seriously considering during 2022 to remove social groups from the circle of support, and may do the same behavior towards raising the prices of subsidized materials again, meaning that the support policy tends towards reducing the actual subsidy amounts despite the apparent increase of these amounts in the state’s general budget to more from half.
We really need clear and transparent figures from the Ministry of Finance about what it actually spent on the components of support during the years (2020-2021) in order for us to know the true value of the budget support, even if it actually takes up about (41%) of the estimated budget expenditures, and then the numbers become clear The actual subsidy is derived from the virtual numbers, and the real size of the government’s intervention in the subsidy system is known, and the true cost of subsidies borne by the government and how that cost is distributed among the components of the support.
Hashtag – Ayham Assad
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