Jordanian PM Ensour says public debt is 72% of GDP

The Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour in his meeting The Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour has called for achieving a cooperative contribution in order to allow the national economy exceed the recent critical situation, which needs taking some important decisions.In his meeting with chief editors of the Jordanian daily newspapers, economic journalists, writers, in the presence of Financial Minister Soliman Al Hafez, Minister of Information and Minister of Culture Samih Al Moayata, the PM confirmed "that the government will not take any sudden decision unless after consultation and holding discussions trying to achieve public agreement on it, The government is still in the discussion stage, as there isn't any decision taken about cancelling supply despite that governmental committees are discussing it."
He confirmed that all discussed scenarios are including supporting low and medium income categories protecting them from any financial procedures may come against their interest, while rich will bear it.
Confirming on setting a financial plan for compensating low and medium income categories from rising fuel prices in order not to be affected by the decision, allowing them to receive financial support exceeding the value of their real consumption. He asserted on the importance of studying the social effect for the governmental decision about supply according to the protection plan for mentioned categories, as 1.5 million foreigners who are living in Jordan should pay for fuel, while 5.5 million of Jordanians will get benefit from the supply.
The Prime Minister according to official data stated that "the fuel direct cost for poorest income categories in Jordan is 142 Dinar annually while the number is increasing proportionally with higher incomes, where he added that the state public treasury has beard Dinar 5 bn in the last two years increasing in fuel prices "supporting oil derivatives", where the amount reached Dinar 2.5 bn this year including Dinar 800 mn for fuel and rest for electricity".
Ensour confirmed that "the kingdom crude oil purchases and oil derivatives all are paid in world prices and Jordan does not take any preferable prices. Crude oil is transported from Yanbu to Aqaba then to the refinery station deriving seven main products, confirming that the government did not decide the mechanism of cancelling supply on oil derivatives yet. However at the same time, they did not deny that the public debt has reached 72 per cent  from GDP, despite that public debt law prevent exceeding 60 per cent  from the GDP.
The Prime Minister asserted that supplying prices will remain without changes as long as world oil prices is higher than the price in the day of taking the decision, including decreasing supplying compensation if prices decreased. He added that the energy sector will witness major changes after building liquid gas port in July 2014, thus electricity problems will be solved confirming that low income categories will get much benefits from cancelling fuel supply as long as income increase.He mentioned that the biggest problem in energy supply and financial field is decreasing natural gas supply according to agreed amounts 250 million meter daily, where Jordanian government has raised prices of one million British thermal unit, from $ 2.15 to $ 5, where the recent amounts don’t exceed 40 million meter.On the other side the government announced that "national electricity company debt reached Dinar 2.3 bn having $ 5 mn daily losses due to cutting natural gas, while tolls and taxes on oil derivatives as he said "the payable tolls on oil derivatives including customs amounted by dinar 200 mn annually".
On vehicle issues, the government has not made any decisions in order not to form a burden on the Jordanian citizen. However, the Prime Minister confirmed the importance of exerting much efforts to improve tax collection, where for example capital having Dinar 240 mn debts and the needed dues from citizens amounted by Dinar 260 mn.
The Jordanian Financial Minister Suliman Hafez said that the Jordanian government is working hard to increase the variety of its energy sources, trying to depend on local sources, including oil rocks where Jordan will sign an agreement with Aston Company before the end of this year in order to generate 400 MW of oil rocks, which need three years to build the station.