Yemens Budget for 2002 YR531 Billion for General Overhead [Archives:2002/05/Business & Economy]

Mahyoub Al-Kamali
The parliament ratified last week the general budget of the country for the year 2002 after disagreements among members of the government with regard to some Ministries budgets. The opposition parties opposed the recommendations of the parliaments statement to implement the new budget. Opposition says that it is not applicable.
In its new budget, the government has given priority to augmenting the allocated amounts of the budget to the defense and security bodies to finance the Yemens anti-terror campaign. This comes at the expanse of augmenting the net deficit of the budget totaling YR 49 billion and 808 million at the rate of 9,4 percent of the overall general estimated budget in comparison with the 2001 general budget which totaled YR 14 billion and 39 million. The general revenues have been estimated at YR 482 billion 21 million.
General Overhead
The general overhead has been estimated at YR 531 billion and 829 million registering an increase by YR 29 billion and 947 million (6%) to the general overhead of the last year. The additional part of the general overhead goes to the state administrative system (YR 418,165,000,000) and the local authority (YR 113,664,000,000).
The Overall Monetary Deficit
The overall monetary deficit of the year 2002 has been estimated at YR 43 billion and 648 million and at the rate of 2.63% of the GDP of 2002. The following chart illustrates the GDPof 2002 together with 2001 deficit estimations.
Investment Budgets
The capital stocks of the capital Investment budgets have totaled YR116,389,000,000 registering an increase by YR143,096,000,000 (i.e. 14.1%) in comparison with the last year.
Other allocations were decided as follow: YR26,092,000,000 for general services, YR25,330,000,000 for the Ministry of Defense, YR15,562,000,000 for education, YR4,960,000,000 for health, YR4,527,000,000 for social services and YR39,918,000,000 for economic services.
The administrative and financial aspects of the budget
— The local council indicators.
For the first time, preparations have been carried out to link the general budget with an independent budget of the local council authority at the cost of YR113,361,000,000.
II- Continuing the Economic Reforms Program
The new general budget aims at applying what remains of the economic reforms and financing the budget deficit with the aim of achieving social care network.
III- Realizing Security & Stability.
The government of Yemen has striven to achieve internal stability, protect investors and fight terrorism as the funds allocated to the Ministry of Defense rose to YR104,844,000,000 for the current year against YR80,902,000,000 last year. The funds allocated to the Ministry of Interior totaled YR26,300.000,000 against YR22,720,000,000 last year.

Paying back financial Commitments
The new budget includes the pay-back of financial commitments destined for interests on services which totaled YR37,931,000,000 Besides, YR21,932,000,000 has been allocated to paying back the installments for foreign loans which are estimated at USD 4 billion. The budget also aims at getting grants for the current year totaling YR8,268,000,000 and new loans estimated at YR15,772,000,000.
The suicide attacks on the USA have led to the reduction of oil revenues and its prices at international markets. Tourism has been also drastically affected by these attacks by 95%.

Opposition Stance
Since the opposition parties are in a weak stance in the parliament, they can do nothing more than issuing a statement of condemnation for the current budget and the reform program doses. Opposition parties held the government responsible for the consequences of the foreign debts and their interests. They also called for rooting out corruption prevalent in the government financial and administrative system.


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