The state budget deficit for the year 2021 has widened by 38% to 9,792 million dinars (MD), under the Supplementary Finance Act, against 7094 MD provided for by the Finance Act 2021.
For the first time, the Ministry of Finance has not mentioned in the decree on that supplementary Act the volume of the state budget rectified.
Economic expert Ezzedine Saidane said in a statement to TAP the state budget in the supplementary law 2021 is estimated at 55.5 billion dinars, against 52.6 billion dinars in the initial state budget for the year 2021.
The initial budget was developed on the basis of an average price of 45 dollars per oil barrel. However, the price of the barrel has climbed to $ 80 during the last period, a difference in the subsidy of hydrocarbons of 3.2 billion dinars, experts point out, knowing that each increase by one dollar in the price of a barrel leads to a rise in the subsidy of hydrocarbons by 129 million dinars.
Saidane pointed to a sharp decline in public investment, which fell from 7.4 billion dinars in the initial state budget to 4 billion dinars provided in the supplementary finance law.
The debt requirements have increased to 21.1 billion dinars, against 18.7 billion dinars planned in the initial budget for the year 2021.
According to the Legislative Decree No. 2021-3 of November 15, 2021, on the Supplementary Budget Act for the year 2021, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Tunisia (JORT) Tuesday, the revenues of the state budget have been set at 34,449 MD against 33,109 MD in the Finance Act 2021.
The expenditure of the State budget will be of the order of 44,241 MD against 40,203 MD planned by Finance Law 2021.
The revenues of the State budget amounting to 34,449 MD are divided into 30,816 MD tax revenues (against 29825 MD), 3,103 MD non-tax revenues (against 2,484 MD) and 530 MD donations.
The government intends to finance the deficit and to cover the treasury charges by mobilising external borrowing resources of 12,150 MD and internal borrowing resources of 8,120 MD, in addition to treasury resources of 801 MD.
According to updated data of the supplementary finance law of 2021, external loan resources decreased (13,015 MD in the finance law of 2021), while internal loan resources went up (5580 MD).
The supplementary finance law for 2021 was published through the Presidential Decree n° 117 dated September 22, 2021 on exceptional measures.
