{"id":12788,"date":"2016-12-28T12:08:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T12:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12788"},"modified":"2016-12-28T12:08:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T12:08:12","slug":"saudi-arabia-to-hike-fuel-prices-sell-national-assets-cut-salaries-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12788","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia to hike fuel prices, sell national assets, cut salaries in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Kingdom of Saudi \u00a0Arabia, one of the largest oil-producing countries in the world, says it will cut salaries, sell national assets, and hike fuel prices in 2017 and beyond.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite recovering oil prices, Saudi, which <strong>borrowed to fund budget deficit for the first time ever<\/strong> in October 2016, says if these measures are not taken, \u201cthe government is likely to face serious fiscal challenges in the medium and long term, one of which is a potential chronic fiscal imbalance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0its Fiscal Balance Programme (FBB) obtained by TheCable, the Kingdom plans\u00a0to rid the deficits in the economy, and also place taxes on expatriates and some non-oil products,\u00a0while reviewing allowances of government workers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HIKE IN FUEL PRICE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Kingdom says it plans \u201celiminating misdirected subsidies, and empowering citizens to choose and consume responsibly,\u201d adding that \u201creduced energy prices also incentivize higher wasteful consumption\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi added that \u201csubsidies will not be sustainable in the long term,\u201d so it decided to hike prices in phased manner, from 2017 to 2020.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRIVATISATION\/SALE OF NATIONAL ASSET<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The middle eastern county say \u201cthere are three further areas where the government is already taking steps to strengthen its fiscal position\u201d, which include sale of national assets via a privatisation programme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrivatization: The privatization of government holdings will not only stimulate economic growth, but also improve the fiscal position,\u201d the balanced budget 2020 plan read.<\/p>\n<p>The country has been mulling the sale of a portion of Aramco, state-owned oil company, which is arguably the biggest oil company in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TAX \u00a0ON EXPATRIATES AND FAMILIES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After raising visa fees \u201cfor nationals of countries where bilateral agreements are not in place,\u201d the Kingdom is planing to tax expatriates from July 2016.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSaudi Arabia has one of the most liberal labour policies globally, with very few restrictions on importing foreign labour to work in the Kingdom currently, companies pay a levy of SAR 200 per month per expat employee, but only for expat employees that exceed the number of Saudi employees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoving forward, the levy on all expats will be gradually revised upwards \u2013 which will provide an additional signal to employers to hire more Saudis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The taxes would move from about $27 to $213 per month from July 2017 to July 2020, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><strong>REVIEW OF SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic Sector Reform: The government has been very clear in its intent to contain the cost of public sector salaries and is implementing an efficiency program, which will reduce costs in the medium term,\u201d the country said.<\/p>\n<p>Refering to measures taken in 1980, when oil prices plunged, Saudi said \u201creducing the maximum overtime compensation from 50% to 25% of government salaries each month\u201d was possible.<\/p>\n<p>The government said it would be \u201crestructuring government wages through revising the eligibility and feasibility of various allowances,\u201d and may consider \u201cadjusting and canceling a number of allowances, bonuses, and benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TAX ON \u201cHARMFUL\u201d NON-OIL PRODUCTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Currently, neither Saudi nationals nor foreign labourers pay income taxes, and this policy will remain in place. However,\u00a0value added tax (VAT) of five percent has been signed by the minister of finance.<\/p>\n<p>It would also introduce excise tax on \u201cspecific products with harmful health effects to dis-incentivize consumption of such products\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The taxes will be enforced in the second quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi, like many oil producing countries, have been heavily affected by the plunge of oil prices across the globe. THECABLE<a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/saudi-arabia.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12789\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/saudi-arabia-300x278.jpeg\" alt=\"saudi-arabia\" width=\"300\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/saudi-arabia-300x278.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/saudi-arabia.jpeg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><a href=\"http:\/\/market.jumia.com.ng\/computers-laptops-gaming\/?utm_source=pap&amp;utm_medium=aff&amp;utm_campaign=b364e0f2&amp;a_aid=Omafume&amp;a_bid=b364e0f2\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" title=\"\" src=\"\/\/kaymu.postaffiliatepro.com\/accounts\/default1\/a72f75b38\/b364e0f2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"253\" \/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/kaymu.postaffiliatepro.com\/scripts\/a72f75i38?a_aid=Omafume&amp;a_bid=b364e0f2\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kingdom of Saudi \u00a0Arabia, one of the largest oil-producing countries in the world, says it will cut salaries, sell national assets, and hike fuel prices in 2017 and beyond. Despite recovering oil prices, Saudi, which borrowed to fund budget deficit for the first time ever in October 2016, says if these measures are not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[713],"class_list":["post-12788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-saudi-arabia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/saudi-arabia.jpeg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3kg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12790,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788\/revisions\/12790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}