Reports by the Center for Global Energy Studies indicate that the Kingdom’s income from sales of oil may reach $75 billion. This figure is $30 billion more than the anticipated income for 2003.
It does not, however, indicate that revenues for the 2003-2004 state budget will be in this range.
We cannot now know what amounts will be allocated for various expenditures in the coming budget or whether there will be a surplus or deficit until after the budget is made public.
Likewise, we cannot know the amounts set aside for paying the public debt which is estimated to be in the rage of SR700 billion. This is equivalent to our GDP for the year 2002. To this is added the money the state must pay farmers, contractors, state employees and others such as landowners whose property has been confiscated.
We must also remember that for years many public service employees have not received their allowances and other expenses.
The priority in disbursing government income should go to paying these debts. For this reason, we should not expect to see a surplus in next year’s budget.
This in itself is good news because being able to pay part of the debt is a step in the right direction.
Acting on the debt issue now will spare us many problems in future since we may have sufficient funds due to expected drops in oil revenues in future. Last year witnessed exceptional circumstances that may not occur again and this should make us admit that we face an economic dilemma.
The problem is especially apparent since salaries and wages, maintenance and operation costs as well as other public expenses consume so large a portion of the budget.
The solution lies in diversifying our sources of income and encouraging the private sector to invest in areas other than real estate and the stock market. It is singularly unfortunate that, up to now, we have not been successful in doing so.
— Arab News Local Press 23 September 2003
