Finance Minister: Fiscal Balance Programme progressing as planned

Manama, Jan. 31 (BNA): Minister of Finance and National Economy Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa stressed the ongoing work to achieve the initiatives and recommendations of the government to boost sustainability of the public finance, safeguard financial resources, focus on priorities, lower expenditure and increase revenues. He pointed out that the Fiscal Balance Programme, which aims to reach the point of fiscal balance between government expenditure and revenues by 2022, is going on according to the pre-set plan. The Minister of Finance and National Economy praised the efforts of the Ministerial Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs and Fiscal Balance, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, which contributed to boosting performance of the government’s expenditure, developing financial procedures and promoting governance. The Minister of Finance and National Economy was speaking at a meeting with the officials in charge of the financial affairs at ministries and government institutions to follow up on the procedures put in place in conjunction with the implementation of the Fiscal Balance Programme. They reviewed initiatives and strategic projects carried out by the Ministry of Finance and National Economy to enhance effectiveness of the government’s financial procedures and the new fundamentals to be adopted while preparing the public budget for the fiscal years 2021-2022. The Minister of Finance and National Economy lauded the efforts made to achieve forecast goals, stressing the role of the task forces in charge of lowering the government’s operational expenditure and working out recommendations and initiatives to rationalize the government’s expenditure and ensure optimum use of financial resources. He also underlined keenness of the Ministry of Finance and National Economy and relevant parties on carrying out the initiatives of the Fiscal Balance Programme according to the schedule. He pointed out the need to multiply efforts to achieve forecast goals, stressing the key role of the officials in charge of the financial affairs at ministries and government institutions.