Majlis to hold closed-door session with finance minister

MUSCAT: The Majlis Ash’shura will hold a closed-door session with Sultan bin Salim al Habsi, Minister of Finance, on Wednesday to discuss the draft of State Budget 2023.

Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed al Nadabi, Secretary General of the Majlis Ash’shura, said that the council’s second ordinary session on Wednesday will be a closed-door round of discussion to be dedicated to terms, financial and economic indices of next year’s State Budget draft.

According to the provisions of Article (52) of the Council of Oman’s Law, the session will be a secret elaboration on various topics of the budget, including estimates of general revenues, public spending, developmental allocations, the public debt standing, the state’s fiscal position, subsidy policies, government investments, economic diversification programmes, direct foreign investment and privatisation programmes, said Al Nadabi.

He added that the council’s third ordinary session on Thursday will be dedicated for discussion of the Economic and Financial Committee’s report on State Budget 2023, as well as two draft laws forwarded to the government — one on higher education and the other on basic education. The session will cover a variety of draft projects on biometric fingerprints, Oman-eu comprehensive air transport agreement, Oman-south Africa air services agreement and Oman-rwanda air services agreement.