MP Warns of Deficit, Govt Posts Surplus
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 MUHARRAM 20, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Second grand The Real Fouz: Everybody Raptors beach Lip care loves the rally to cleaning drive tips of adorable beat Magic underway3 the37 week ‘Dadi’39 again20 Mixed signals: MP warns of Min 07º deficit, govt posts surplus Max 27º High Tide 02:27 & 17:07 Stats office says economy grew last year, contradicting IMF Low Tide 10:07 & 22:10 40 PAGES NO: 16341 150 FILS By B Izzak and Agencies conspiracy theories Nod to Gulf security pact KUWAIT: Kuwait could end the current 2014/2015 fiscal Walk carefully and year with a budget deficit due to the sharp fall in oil rev- enues, which will be the first shortfall following a budg- carry a big stick Leaders could meet ahead of summit et surplus in each of the past 15 fiscal years, head of the National Assembly’s budgets committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad warned yesterday. MP Ahmad Al-Qudhaibi meanwhile said that he has collected the necessary 10 signatures to call for holding a special Assembly session to discuss the consequences of the sharp drop in oil prices. By Badrya Darwish Oil income makes up around 94 percent of Kuwait’s public revenues and this explains how sensitive the Kuwaiti budget will be to movements in oil price. The government, which last month ended subsidies on diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel, instructed ministers [email protected] on Monday to rationalize spending and ensure that expenditures go in the right direction. MP Abdulsamad said that based on calculations of itting at the newspaper yesterday afternoon, average oil prices and average daily production, Kuwait we got some exciting news. A hyena was tak- is forecast to post a budget surplus of KD 1.233 billion in Sing a walk on the Sixth Ring Road. Guys, a the current fiscal year which ends on March 31. The pro- HYENA. Not a dog. Where did this animal come jected deficit is mainly due to the expected sharp from? Hyenas usually do not live in urban areas but decline in oil revenues in the second half of the fiscal are native to the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. year by KD 3.3 billion compared to the first six months. KUWAIT: Officials and defense ministers pose for a group photo at Bayan Palace during a Gulf So what brought this nice creature to stroll on our But public revenues will increase by KD 280 million as a Cooperation Council (GCC) Joint Defense Council meeting held yesterday ahead of a scheduled annual streets so casually? result of the depreciation of the Kuwaiti dinar against summit in Qatar next month. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Here are some possible answers to where it the US dollar. At the start of the year, a dollar was equal to 280 fils and now it has increased to 290 fils. came from: First, maybe it escaped from the zoo? KUWAIT: The Gulf security pact has been approved papers said yesterday. According to Kuwaiti daily Al- Could be. But I think if it had escaped, the zoo man- Abdulsamad said that based on official figures, the by all members of the GCC and is to be turned over Anbaa, consultations are underway to convene an infor- average price for Kuwaiti oil was $103.92 a barrel in the agement would announce it or at least go out look- to a GCC meeting of interior ministers slated for the mal meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders ing for it and inform the Ministry of Interior. first five months of the fiscal year (April to August). This end of the month in Kuwait, a GCC official yesterday. before their Dec 9-10 summit in Doha. The gathering in was followed by a steep slide in oil prices, which aver- Another possibility - it wandered in from the desert. the Qatari capital will go ahead on time but after a “spe- The GCC Secretariat’s assistant director for security aged $95.4 a barrel in September and $84.3 a barrel in That’s very unlikely and near impossible because issues Brig Hazzaa Al-Hajri told reporters after the cial summit”, possibly in Riyadh next week, to iron out October. Oil prices declined further in November, with the distance it would have had to traverse - thou- end of a preparatory meeting of GCC interior min- differences, Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat said. Kuwaiti oil hovering around $75 a barrel, which is the sands of miles - and also people would have seen it istries’ undersecretaries that the GCC Secretariat had Amid a simmering dispute over Islamists between price adopted in the budget to calculate oil revenues, before. Not to mention, it would have been a pact in place on fighting terrorism which could be Doha and three other GCC members, a top Kuwaiti offi- Abdulsamad said. In addition, oil revenues were calcu- checked at immigration in Abdaly, Nuwaiseeb or implemented if the need arose. cial denied the venue of the annual summit was being lated on the basis of oil production of 2.7 million barrels Salmy for its visit visa. He said the preparatory meeting of the undersecre- changed. Kuwait has been mediating since Saudi per day, but the actual production was 2.6 million bpd, A third possibility is that the hyena escaped from taries came up with a number of significant recommen- Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain he said. This would further reduce oil revenues. one of our amateur exotic animal collectors. There dations, the main one being adopting a study by the pulled their envoys out of Doha in March. “I have only Continued on Page 13 are many of these young collectors in Kuwait who Secretariat on the establishment of a pan-GCC police heard about a summit to be held at a certain time in a instead of collecting art or stamps, prefer reptiles, force. He also said that the undersecretaries discussed specific country, which is Qatar,” said foreign ministry crocodiles, lions, hyenas, wolves, etc. They import the idea of a unified GCC fiber optic communications undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah, quoted by Al-Anbaa. Amnesty: Qatar exotic animals without licenses, without training network and issues related to drug trafficking, civil “I hope it will be held at its time and place.” and often without adequate facilities to keep and defense, and road safety. The next meeting of the Jarallah denied reports of attempts to move the take care of these creatures. And many do not know undersecretaries will be held in Qatar next year, he said. summit of the six-nation GCC - which also includes foot-dragging or even care about the dangers these animals could Meanwhile, Gulf leaders could hold a special meet- Oman - to either Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, the host of last pose if they get loose. ing to resolve differences within their ranks ahead of a year’s meeting. on labor rights And this is not the first time we were faced in scheduled annual summit in Qatar next month, news- Continued on Page 13 Kuwait with a wild animal. How many times have DUBAI: Amnesty International said yesterday that 2022 dangerous snakes escaped and threatened society? World Cup host nation Qatar is lagging behind on It was only a few years ago when they found a mas- addressing concerns about the abuse of migrant workers sive boa or some type of python in a nursery school Loose in the concrete jungle six months after it laid out plans for labor reforms. The garden. Thank God none of the kids were harmed wealthy OPEC nation has come under increasing scrutiny as they discovered it before the kids went to the over its labor practices since world football governing playground. And I will never forget another story body FIFA awarded it the rights in 2010 to host the tour- where a man was at his desert camp and he was nament. Like other energy-rich Gulf nations, Qatar relies met with a lion at the entrance as he was leaving. heavily on migrant workers drawn mainly from South And many other similar stories I cannot even Asia to build its roads, skyscrapers and stadiums. remember them now, but I wrote about it at the In a new report, the London-based human rights time. group criticized Qatar for failing to substantially tackle So it’s high time that the government takes this issues such as the “kafala” employee sponsorship system issue seriously. Like cutting expenses. It’s not only that ties expatriate workers to a single employer, and cutting expenses that is an issue for the nation. Also requirements that workers obtain exit permits from their stuff like this and our national safety are serious employers in order to leave the country. Amnesty notes issues that need to be addressed. Maybe I have to that Qatari officials increasingly acknowledge the exis- draw attention to our honorable gentlemen in the tence of labor problems and the need for improvement. parliament. That such issues are also important to But it also warns that a failure to put serious changes in the nation and should be tackled. Perhaps they can place in the coming months “will call into question put them on their agenda besides grilling ministers. whether the Qatari authorities are serious about reform.” Be careful when you take a walk nowadays, “The legacy of the FIFA 2022 World Cup would be the especially as the weather is good and many people hundreds of thousands of workers who were exploited to are going for morning jogs or afternoon strolls.