KUWAIT CITY, Jan 31: The government has referred decree number 5/2024 on the State budget for fiscal 2024/2025 to the National Assembly. The decree includes 41 reports on the budgets of ministries, public institutions, independent budget institutions and subsidiaries.

According to the decree, the total State budget is KD18,662,209,000 and the estimated expenditure is KD24,555,000,000; so the deficit is estimated at KD5,892,791,000. Meanwhile, Chairman of the parliamentary Financial and Economic Affairs Committee MP Shuaib Al- Muwaizri disclosed that the reports of the committee on the bills about the cost of living allowance increment and zero interest loans have been included in the agenda of the session scheduled for Feb 6, 2024. He affirmed these bills will be discussed and voted on to bring glad tidings to the people of Kuwait. He disclosed that the bill on increasing the cost of living allowance to KD250 per month covers the public sector employees, nationals working in the private sector and receiving the national labor subsidy, retirees, and those with medium and severe disabilities. He said the other bill is on amending Article 112 of the Public Institution for Social Security Law No. 61/1976 to increase the maximum amount of zero interest loan to 15 times of the beneficiary’s salary.

He affirmed these two bills are part of the legislative agenda approved by 48 MPs, urging his colleagues to bear their responsibility towards the citizens. On the other hand, MP Osama Al- Shaheen forwarded queries to Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and acting Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahd Yusuf Al-Sabah about the family visa regulations. He wants to know the new rules in this regard, if there is a quota for every expatriate community, and developments in the enforcement of Law No. 74/2020 on addressing the demographic imbalance issue since the Council of Ministers assigned the Interior Minister to implement the law.

MP Hamdan Al-Azmi asked Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Oil Emad Al-Atiqi if the recommendations of the parliamentary fact-finding committee formed in the previous legislative year about the violations in the recruitment and promotion of employees at Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC) have been implemented, if the percentage of nationals working in contracting companies was modified given the recommendations that nationals should constitute at least 40 percent of the total administrative workforce and 50 percent of the total number of technical staff, percentage of national workers in the last five years, and strategy to Kuwaitize jobs in contracting companies. He added the committee also recommended filling up vacancies in KNPC and the executive regulations must be amended such that positions are not left vacant for more than three months. He inquired about the current number of vacancies at KNPC and its subsidiaries, if any position has been vacant for years, and reasons behind the delay in filling up vacancies. He also requested for the list of the chairpersons and members of the boards of directors of KNPC’s subsidiaries including their qualifications, age, term and date of appointment. He asked about the number of vacant board chairperson and member posts in the subsidiaries, number of expatriates working at KNPC and its subsidiaries, number of terminated expatriate workers since the implementation of the policy on replacing expatriates with nationals, number of national workers appointed at KNPC and its subsidiaries since the enforcement of the policy, current number of nationals working at KNPC and its subsidiaries compared to the expatriates.

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff