Al Asla bloc has planned to table a parliamentary proposal which would call for allocating subsidy for Bahraini citizens, MP Ibrahim Bosandel told Khaleej Times yesterday.
Bahrain offers subsidies in important commodities such as red meat and flour, while it provides cheaper fuel, diesel for all.
"We aren’t discriminating expatriates but just want to follow international standards that allocate subsidies for locals only."
He vowed his bloc’s move to ensure that the subsidies items would be provided for expatriates and businesses for reasonable prices. "Many are misusing the subsidy, as for example red meat is being sold for BD1 per kilogramme and that brings butchers from Saudi Arabia to come and buy meat from Bahrain and sell it for almost double the price in their country."
Bosandel said that Bahrainis’ electricity tariff should be different from that of expatriates as the government was losing huge amount of money every year as it provides subscribers with power for less than its production cost regardless of their nationality. "We will give the government several options to implement our proposal, including providing needy with special discount cards or offering general salary increment in order to scrap subsidy for all," he said.
Bosandel said that the government had been studying excluding expatriates and wealthy Bahrainis from its BD10 million of food subsidy.
Through the Consumers Protection Directorate at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce , the government subsidies meat, bread and other important products and a recent study by the ministry recommended allocating such services for only needy and limited income families with less than BD600 monthly salaries by given them purchasing coupons.
"The coupons scheme is not final as it is one of many recommendations to make the best use of the budget and allocate the services only for those deserving them," he said, adding that restaurants were benefiting from the government subsidy and that was considered as a waste to the public financial resources.
He said that nothing was final at the moment, but before approving the scheme the government must know who to refer to.
He says if the scheme is be implemented it would come through the ministry of social development.
