Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Sky News revealed new figures on Bahrain's records of a huge increase in oil revenues in 2022, which reports published by Bahrain Mirror have already confirmed.

According to Sky News, Bahrain is among several Arab states that recorded a massive increase in its revenues last year due to the increase in oil prices, indicating that many countries in the region have changed from the stage of fiscal deficits to recording financial surpluses.

Bahrain's oil and gas revenues increased by $6.4 billion (2.4 billion dinars), an amount that covers the deficit without the need to count other revenues, but where did these billions go?

The government will not answer this question because it denies that it recorded in the first-place fiscal surpluses and insists that last year's budget recorded a deficit of 187 million dinars.

If Sky News' figures were compared to those of the Ministry of Finance, the result would be that Bahrain recorded a surplus of more than one billion and 200 million dinars.

The estimated deficit in the state budget was about one billion and 112 million dinars, while the increase in oil revenues amounted to 2.4 billion dinars.

These figures confirm beyond any doubt that the government, through the Ministry of Finance, is falsifying the figures that it presents to the public, and that there are separate secret budgets for the ruling family.

The public cannot trust the figures provided by the ministry, nor the draft budgets approved by parliament, as they are not real budgets and do not reflect the country's financial situation.

What Sky News published are surpluses as a result of an increase in oil prices, without counting Bapco refinery revenues and the increase in non-oil revenues that include the profits of major Bahraini companies as well as the tax system.

The pipeline revenues are not included in the budget, and so is the case with Alba's profits that amounted to more than 400 million dinars recorded last year, while the VAT revenues increased by 360 million dinars.

In fact, with a lack of transparency and an effective independent oversight body, all estimates of thefts of public funds will remain much lower than they actually are.

Arabic Version