Nearly 150k benefit from ex gratia for unsubsidised meat

Following the removal of the meat subsidy last October, around 150,000 citizens have benefited from the cash compensations given by the government.  “147, 892 citizens initially registered for the compensation scheme, while 1,246 new beneficiaries newly registered,” revealed Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan to a parliamentary query submitted by MP Khalid Al Shaer recently.

Al Shaer’s queries were focused on the numbers of beneficiaries from the government’s cash compensation plans in the first four months after removing meat subsidies, and the budget set to cover the compensations.

In his reply, Minister Humaidan said: “BD26 million is the actual amount set by the government to compensate citizens for the meat subsidy removal. Around BD12m was credited to the bank accounts of registered beneficiaries in the period between October 2015 and January 2016.”

He added that the cash compensations were credited every three months, confirming that “there are no long waiting lists and the newly registered will receive their compensations directly within the next instalment.”

DT News reported earlier that the redirection of meat subsidies saved the government BD67m in 2014, as informed by Parliament and Information Affairs Minister Isa bin Abdulrahman Al Hammadi then.

Al Hammadi also mentioned that citizens only benefitted from 20 per cent of the subsidised meat products in the past, while the remaining 80pc went to non-Bahrainis, hotels and restaurants, which mainly use them in commercial purposes. “It’s against the subsidies’ schemes that are mainly set to benefit domestic use only.”

The removal of meat subsidy caused the increase of meat prices by at least three times in local markets. 

The government then introduced the initiative of compensating citizens, depositing allowances of BD5, BD3.5 and BD2.5 into their accounts and categorising beneficiaries according to their age groups.