JBA Economic Forum hosted The Minister of Finance Dr. Umayyah Toukan on Sun , Dec. 21st 2014 to talk about the Draft State Budget Law for 2015 . HE Mr. Hamdi Tabba’a welcomed the guest and expressed the Jordanian business communities point of view about the draft state budget law regarding the continuing slide in oil prices to reach $60 / barrel , and that the assumption of the Gov. of $100/ barrel on which the budget was based is invalid, he expressed the private sector concern about the effect of high fuel , gas and electricity prices on the competitiveness of the Jordanian economy . He also said that the capital expenditure allocation is not sufficient to drive the required development projects . He stressed that the budget deficit is high and the Gov. intended to increase its revenues regardless the difficult economic situation that the people of Jordan are suffering from as well as the various economic sectors . He criticized the new investment law for lacking enough incentives to attract investments and the draft income tax law that increases the burden on the people in order to gain more revenues to the Gov. He stated that the Public finance is still dependant on foreign aid mainly from the Gulf States and US and EU at a time when the decline in oil prices is going to affect the revenues of these countries. HE Dr. Ummayya Toukan on his part defended the Draft State Budget Law and reviewed its pillars and the assumptions on which it was based saying that the Gov. has no intention to review the future oil prices from a conservative point of view since the future is full of unexpected developments in the region thus it is only wise to be on the safe side in a region suffering from turmoil and unrest . He explained that the Gov took the decision to raise electricity prices in order to overcome the cumulative losses of NEPCO which lay a heavy burden on the budget . He also reviewed to the audience the positive developments in the economic restructuring of the Jordanian economy and the international agencies evaluation which is optimistic regarding the future of the Jordanian economy in the few up coming years