KUWAIT: Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, the State Minister for Cabinet Affairs announced that government has no intention of imposing taxes, cutting wages and reducing benefits for Kuwaiti employees. Which is a good news for all the Kuwaiti employee community.
“The government has not asked any side to study the possibility of imposing taxes. Taxation is one of the most important sources of revenues in the world but not here in Kuwait. We have not even thought about it,” the minister told the National Assembly during a debate on the consequences of the decline in oil prices.
The minister insisted that the government has no plans to cut wages or reduce benefits in the foreseeable future, but added that the government will study cutting the spending of certain government agencies by 20-25 percent. He did not name them. Head of the Budgets Committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad said the government suggested cutting public spending from KD 23.2 billion this year to KD 19 billion in the coming fiscal year 2015/2016. Abdulsamad said that under the new budget, salaries and benefits will not be touched and the same applies to strategic projects. He also reaffirmed that the budget does not include any proposals to increase the prices of petrol and electricity.
Planning Minister Hind Al-Subaih also confirmed that important projects will not be affected. She said that the five-year plan includes 29 mega projects, some of which will be implemented in partnership with the private sector. During the session, officials from Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) explained the main causes that led to the massive slide in oil prices and its impact on Kuwait’s crude industry.
il Minister Ali Al-Omair said Kuwait produces around 2.8 million barrels per day and its impact on the global oil market is not huge and cannot decide the prices of oil. KPC chief executive officer Nezar Al-Adasani said Kuwait will continue with its oil projects in various fields with the aim to raise production to 3.5 million bpd in 2015-2016 and then to 4.0 million bpd by 2020. He said the new refinery project and several exploration and production projects, especially in heavy oil, will continue as planned and there will be no delays.
During the debate, MPs raised the row with Saudi Arabia that led to halting production in the offshore Khafji oilfield jointly shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The oil minister said that they have been informed by the Saudi side that the reasons for the halt were technical, adding that strong relations with Riyadh are capable of overcoming any problem. At the end of the debate, the Assembly passed a number of recommendations including the call to employ more Kuwaitis in the oil sector.
