MPs to halt budget approval over meat subsidy controversy

Manama

All parliamentarians Tuesday pledged to halt approving the state budget for the fiscal year 2015-2016, in case the Government doesn’t withdraw its decision to cut meat subsidies.

This was stated during the council’s weekly meeting, which was chaired by Speaker Ahmed Al Mulla on Tuesday. 

A major part of the session was dedicated to the discussion of the recent controversial decision of the government.

The latter announced last week that it would slash out several subsidies, including meat, electricity, water and oil products, in order to cut cost and tackle the current deficit in the country’s budget. 

MPs expressed their rejection, justifying that “subsidies form 8 per cent of the state budget and the government is dedicating all its efforts to cut cost towards it, while the remaining 92pc of funds are untouched.”

They also rejected the government’s proposal to compensate citizens with trifle amounts, such as the BD5 compensation for removing meat subsidy, announced last week by Social Development Minister Faeqa Al Saleh.”

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, who called the MPs to consider the situations the country is going through, such as the general debt and the decreasing crude oil prices.

On the other hand, Shura and Parliament Councils Affairs Minister Ghanem Al Buanain confirmed that a meeting would be hold soon between both legislative and executive authorities to discuss the matter.