KUWAIT - The 2008-2009 fiscal year also witnessed noticeable hikes of state subsidies and aid, rising -- in 2007-2008 -- from KD 85 million to KD 381 million, simultaneously with issuance of the law (No. 28 of 2008) with regard of the disbursement of financial aid to cut cost of living.
Other substantial hikes was recorded, in 2007-2010, in the sectors of supporting labor in non-governmental institutions, in line with the state abidance of improving the staff income per capita in the private corporations -- thus increasing these allotments by 43.6 percent to lure citizens to be employed in the private sector.
As to the burdent of the salaries and the subsidies in the state budget, as compared to the overall oil income, the study showed that they constituted 57.
8 percent, in the past nine years. This proportion dropped from 68 percent in 2001-2005 to five percent in 2005-2010 as a result of the hike of the oil prices.
Burden of the subsidies, proportional to the oil revenues, ovr the past four years, exceeded that of the salaries, where they reached 28.8 percent, while that of the salaries stood at 23.7 percent.
With exemption of the extraordinary rises, namely financing the actuarial deficit, namely in the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 years, the salaries and wages remained the number-one burden, as proportionally compared to the oil revenues.
The oil revenues in the state budget constituted some 90 percent of the overall rvenenues. They stood at 83 percent in the budgets of 2001-2002 and 2004-2005 periods -- and reached 91 percent in the past years.
As to the growth of citizen's share from the subsidies' allocations, the study showed the annual income per capita of the subsidies rose from KD 1,800 in the 2001-2002 fiscal year to KD 2,900 in 2009-2010. The annual per capita income reached KD 3,100 in the past nine years.
The study said that reasonale oil prices, required to cover the cost of the salaries and the subsidies should be in the range of 35-30 dollars per barrel.- Kuna