Expatriates – our guests; Win-win situation for all

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Kamal Al-Harami
Kamal Al-Harami

Expatriates form majority of our population, as they constitute 70 percent of the people in Kuwait. They also constitute more than 93 percent of the total workforce in the private sector. They play a major part in almost every activity that runs our lives.

They are the doctors, nurses, medical staff, contractors, plumbers, carpenters as well as the domestic workers in our homes. They are living with us and among us in order to earn their living, invest and send their earnings to their dependants in their native countries. Therefore, it is a winwin situation for all of us. Once in a while, there are some voices calling for imposing taxes. Recently, some have been calling for imposing the increase in fuel prices on expatriates in favor of citizens who are to be exempted from the price increase.

This is not acceptable and no one should even think about this. It is understood that any increase imposed on our guests will be met with increase by them. They simply want to earn their daily income. The recent increase in fuel prices will lead to increase in the daily living costs for users of any mode of transportation.

This is an additional cost that will have to be borne by the fi nal consumers and that includes all of us without any exception. If we are serious about cutting costs, we should start with ourselves such as by reducing the number of domestic workers because there are a total of 650,000 domestic workers in our homes. They are the main burden for our economy.

There is an average of more than three in each household. That is very costly but no one seems to calculate the exact cost of their salary, food, use of electricity and water, medication and a private room in the house, which could be more than KD 1,000 per month. This adds extra burden on basic state services such as electricity and water, medicines and hospitals.

Therefore, the government must seek to impose higher tariffs on private houses and must try to reduce the number of domestic workers in an effort to balance our population and eliminate wastage of our resources. We should always remember that expatriates are our guests who are living among us to make money and maintain their standard of living. We should encourage them to invest in our country and reduce their annual remittance of $18 billion to their respective countries. This will be another gain for all of us without affecting equality, stability and security. Can we think in those lines? Someday perhaps!

By Kamel Al-Harami Independent Oil Analyst
[email protected]

This news has been read 5784 times!

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