By B Izzak
KUWAIT: The National Assembly on Wednesday passed the 2023/2024 budget, which is projecting the largest spending in the country’s history, most of it for wages and subsidies, as Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun called for reducing expats so that they will be equal with citizens. The budget projects spending at KD 26.2 billion and revenues at KD 19.4 billion, leaving a shortfall of KD 6.8 billion, mostly due to calculating oil proceeds at a conservative price. After the vote, the Assembly closed its current term, shortened by the snap polls on June 6. The Assembly will hold its second term in late October.
HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah thanked lawmakers for the cooperation they exhibited and called for more cooperation in the next term. Forty-seven MPs voted for the budget, 12 members opposed it and one member abstained. The approval comes just a few days after the finance ministry announced that Kuwait posted an actual surplus of KD 6.4 billion, according to the final accounts of the 2022/2023 fiscal year which ended on March 31. The ministry said public revenues reached KD 28.8 billion, of which KD 26.7 billion came from oil, while total spending reached KD 22.4 billion.
Rapporteur of the Assembly’s budgets committee MP Osama Al-Zaid told the Assembly on Wednesday that as much as KD 21 billion of expenditures are allocated for wages and spending. Oil income in the current year’s budget is estimated at KD 17.2 billion, while non-oil revenue is projected at KD 2.2 billion. Speaking during the debate on the budget, Saadoun called for amending the demographic structure in the country in a way that Kuwaitis and expats will be equal. The call means that Kuwait should get rid of as many as 1.8 million expats, whose number currently stands at 3.3 million, in order to be equal to 1.5 million Kuwaitis.
Saadoun did not say in how many years his call should be achieved. Saadoun said he will oppose any public debt law from the government before it holds to account all corrupt people, adding all Kuwaitis should have jobs and criticized the low housing allowance the government pays to Kuwaiti families who are waiting for houses. The veteran speaker said Kuwait is before an extraordinary phase and praised the reformist steps taken by the government, but urged HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad to do more.
Minister of Oil and acting finance minister Saad Al-Barrak accepted criticism by lawmakers, but added that asking the government to resolve the years-long bad practices in one budget is impossible. He described this year’s budget as an "emergency budget” following the events in the past three years, which included dissolving the Assembly twice and holding two general polls. MP Hasan Jowhar said the country’s finances have reached a "red line”, as oil revenues are no longer sufficient to meet wages and subsidies.
MP Abdullah Al-Mudhaf said "we are selling oil with our right hand and spending with our left hand”. MP Marzouq Al-Ghanem said the budget is a repetition of previous years "without solutions or a plan”. He added the breakeven price for oil is $93 a barrel and no one believes oil prices are going to increase sharply. MP Saud Al-Asfour said KD 24 billion are allocated for current expenditures and just KD 1.8 billion for capital spending, which goes against the government’s program, adding KD 3 billion is allocated for health and the services are still poor.