Page 238 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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A REPORT ON THE FINANCIAL PROGRESS OF BAHRAIN SINCE 1935

In 1935, when the Bahrain Government received the first oil royalties, a system of financial
administration was settled upon as follows. The oil royalty would be divided into thirds,
one third going to the Privy Purse of the Ruler, one third to non-rccurrcnt capital expenditure
and the remaining third to be invested. It was also decided that the recurrent expenses of the
Government should be met out of the Government’s other revenues, primarily the customs dues.
Despite occasional difficulties, this policy has been adhered to during the past twenty years,
and details of the various revenues and expenditures are shown below.

It can be seen that during these years, the State has received a total revenue of 267,632,000
rupees (£20,072,400) after deductions to the Privy Purse. Of this amount, just over 151 million
rupees (11-1/3 million pounds) was accounted for by the oil royalties, while the interest on the
reserve of 12 million rupees (900,000 pounds) can also be said to be derived from the 84J
million rupees (6-1/3 million pounds) which has been invested in the Reserve Fund.

In these twenty years expenditure on non-recurrent projects amounted to about 68J
million rupees (just over 5 million pounds) while 84J million rupees (6-1/3 million pounds), as
has already been mentioned, was put into the Reserve. The sum of these two figures equals
the 151 million rupees received as oil royalties. Over the same period, recurrent expenditure
on the three public services of Education, Public Health and Public Protection amounted to
60 million rupees (4£ million pounds). As can be seen from Table III the expenditure on these
public services, and particularly in the case of Education and Public Health, has increased
greatly each year.

This, then, is Bahrain’s financial situation as it has developed during the years between
1935 and to-day.

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