publish time

29/12/2017

author name Arab Times

publish time

29/12/2017

Finance ministry requests all to stick to allocated budgetsKUWAIT CITY, Dec 28: There has been an increase in the correspondences between a number of state institutions and Ministry of Finance, requesting for additional budget to cover the expense of replacing expatriate employees with citizens, reports Al-Anba daily quoting informed sources.They indicated that this is one among the negative consequences of Kuwaitization policy that have started emerging. The sources explained that this is not in line with the circulars Ministry of Finance had sent to all state institutions, requesting them to stick to the allocated budgets.According to a report issued by Ministry of Finance, the budget deficit has reached KD 2.4 billion as of end of November 2017, with expectations of the deficit reaching KD 4 billion to KD 5 billion, as per Al-Shall Center.The sources revealed that one of the state institutions, which requested anonymity, asked Ministry of Finance for few millions of dinars in order to cover the expenses of indemnity for a number of expatriates who served for decades.It is worth mentioning that the government needs about KD 1 billion per year (more than $ 3 billion) to cover the differences in the salaries of the dismissed expatriate employees and the newly appointed Kuwaiti employees based on the Kuwaitization policy.The difference between the salary of an expatriate employee in the public sector and that of a Kuwaiti employee is KD 820. This means applying Kuwaitization policy on 96,000 jobs will require about KD 80 million per month. The average monthly salary of an expatriate employee in the public sector is KD 680 while it is KD 1,500 for a Kuwaiti employee.