Manama: The Emiri Court in Kuwait is to review and rationalise its budget, an official report in the northern Arabian Gulf state said.

“His Highness the Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah ordered His Highness the Prime Minister Shaikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Hamad Al Sabah to take process needed to restudy the Emiri Diwan (Court) budget and affiliated bodies as well as rationalise it,” Deputy Emiri Diwan Minister Shaikh Ali Jarrah Al Sabah said, Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) reported on Sunday.

The parliament in Kuwait, the first to be established in the region, has the unique prerogatives to review all budgets, including the court, and the interior and the defence ministries.

Kuwait, and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries — Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE —, have recently adopted new policies to deal with the steep decline in the price of oil, the main source of their revenues.

Economic powerhouse Saudi Arabia last month announced a 840 billion riyal (Dh822.9 billion) budget that launched a new phase for the diversification of revenues amid low oil prices.

The government incurred a deficit of 367 billion riyals ($97.9 billion) or 15 per cent of gross domestic product in 2015, officials said. The 2016 budget plan aims to cut that to 326 billion riyals thanks to measures to rationalise expenditure and increase non-oil revenues while improving the fiscal policy framework.

Necessity

In Bahrain, officials said that the new measures, including reducing government agencies and raising the price of fuel, had become a necessity to address the financial situation in the country.

Minister of Energy Abdul Hussain Mirza said that the decision to increase petrol prices was part of the government’s wide-ranging programme of structural economic and fiscal reforms that “will further strengthen the country’s long-term development.”

“The decision will contribute to addressing current fiscal challenges faced by Bahrain, as a result of the unprecedented drop in global oil prices by over 60 per cent,” he said.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Rasheed Mohammad Al Maraj, said the government’s fiscal reforms, which include changes to the fees and prices associated with gas, electricity, water and petrol, would make “a significant contribution to reducing levels of government expenditure and strengthening the Kingdom’s long-term development.”