Saudi cuts ministers' salaries, reduces public sector bonuses to deal with budget deficit

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Saudi Arabia canceled bonus payments for state employees and cut ministers’ salaries by 20 percent, steps that further spread the burden of shoring up public finances to a population accustomed to years of government largesse.

The government also decided to suspend wage increases for the lunar year starting next month and curbed allowances for public-sector employees, according to royal decrees and a cabinet statement published by state media. The salaries of members of a legislative body that advises the monarchy were cut by 15 percent.

By curbing what many Saudis had for years taken for granted, the government is signaling a determination to reduce the highest budget deficit among the world’s 20 biggest economies amid low oil prices and a lingering war in neighboring Yemen. The measures, however, risk deepening the kingdom’s economic slowdown by damaging consumer confidence. Saudi stocks tumbled on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars to buy weapons from its Western allies as it continues with its air campaign against Yemenis. Riyadh’s military aggression lacks any mandate from the United Nations and has cost the life of more than 10,000 Yemeni people.

Saudi Arabia’s large population of expatriate workers has also felt the impacts of the kingdom’s budget deficit, with reports suggesting that many workers remain unpaid for months and major companies have no options but to discharge their foreign workers.

The Embassy of Pakistan in Riyadh said Monday that hundreds of its nationals who have been waiting for months to receive salaries from a Saudi construction firm would fly home without any payment.

Abdul Shakoor Shaikh, the Pakistani Embassy’s community welfare attaché, said 405 Pakistanis, who were owed wages by once-mighty Saudi Oger, would fly home from Wednesday.

The workers are among more than 6,500 Pakistani construction workers who remain unpaid in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi companies have large contingents of workers from several other countries, including India and the Philippines, who have been without salaries for months.



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