KUWAIT: The government affirmed that reviewing subsidies on services is a priority for the authorities in the country, rejecting parliamentary proposals to revert to pre-2016 prices of fuel, electricity and water. Ministerial sources said such proposals are only for media and electoral consumption and have nothing to do with governmental and parliamentary aspirations in addressing the imbalance in the state budget, indicating the government wants to improve living conditions, but not by reducing prices of electricity and fuel.
The sources added prices have a tendency to rise and not go down due to the enormous pressure these state-supported services cause on the public budget. The sources claimed the defect in Kuwait with regard to subsidies is that the majority of benefits go to expatriates and not citizens. The sources said electricity prices will be increased in the coming period, with Kuwaitis to pay the electricity and water tariffs at old prices for one house, and if they own more than one house, the bills will be paid at the new rates.
The sources indicated that all subsidies will be directed to citizens with low incomes, while those with high incomes will not receive support, including subsidized food rations. Five MPs called on Monday for abolishing the increases made to electricity and fuel prices in 2016 so that electricity charges would return to just 2 fils per kilowatt.
Charges of electricity were raised in 2016 from 2 fils a kilowatt to 50 fils per kilowatt, applying mostly to expatriates and Kuwaiti citizens in a few cases. The proposal also called for cancelling the increase in fuel prices introduced in 2016, so petrol prices would return to under 100 fils per liter. The proposal came as part of a string of populist proposals by lawmakers who were elected to the National Assembly on June 6.