UAE budget surplus leaps 130%

abu dhabi — In an indication reflecting the successful costoptimisation policy adopted by the UAE, the country’s federal budget surplus rose during the first nine months of 2016 by 130 per cent to Dh8 billion from Dh3.48 billion in the same period in 2015.

An analysis by the Emirates News Agency indicated that the total revenues of the federal government reached Dh37.463 billion for the first nine months of 2016, with expenditures hitting Dh29.717 billion over the same period. The positive deliverables depict the successful economic policy followed after a zerobased budgeting system has been adopted recently.

Revenues rose by around seven percent to Dh37.463 billion during the January to September period compared to Dh35.04 billion over the same period in 2015. Expenditures fell from Dh31.6 billion to Dh29.717 billion by the end of September.

In more details, the analysis mentioned that federal government revenues collected from service charges reached Dh9.93 billion during the first nine months of 2016. This accounts for 75.1 per cent of 2016’s total revenue, estimated at Dh13.21 billion, according to latest statistics released by the Ministry of Finance. The revenues generated from 2016 service charges until September are almost equal to those achieved over the same period in 2015.

The federal government’s revenue levied through the eDirham system reached Dh5.16 billion, which is equal to 52 per cent of the government’s total service charges, 16 per cent of which were collected manually and 32 per cent automatically, with the manual collection of charges at federal departments reaching 15.55 per cent. — Wam