Article 26 of the Saudi Council of Ministers Law

This article sets out how the State budget is approved, in three stages:

1. Study: the Council of Ministers studies the State budget.
2. Voting chapter by chapter: the Council does not vote on the budget all at once, but on each chapter of it separately.
3. Issuance: the budget is issued by royal decree.

Voting chapter by chapter allows each part of the budget to be considered independently. The article does not state what the chapters are, how they are divided, or the dates for preparing the budget, and these should not be inferred from the text.

This article is linked to what comes before and after it:

• Article 25 bars the Government from contracting a loan except after the approval of the Council of Ministers and a royal decree, so loans and the budget are subject to the same control.
• Article 27 provides that any increase to be made to the budget may be made only by royal decree, so the instrument by which the budget is issued is the same instrument required to increase it.

The importance of the article for the reader is that it explains why the State's general budget is issued annually by royal decree after being studied in the Council of Ministers.