Living expenses are already going high. If there is no other choice but to remove the subsidies, better start with petrol and not with the food items, says MP Jamal Dawood

Muhammed Azam/DTNN

azam@dt.bh

This is not the right time to remove subsidies on food items, stated Head of Public Utilities and Environment Committee MP Jamal Dawood yesterday, while talking to DT News at his office in the Parliament House here in Gudaibiya.

 He said the right thing to do as of now is to wait and analyze the situation.  He stressed the need for some serious thinking and discussions before reaching to conclusions.  

 “Living expenses are already going high. If there is no other choice but to remove the subsidies, better start with petrol and not with the food items,” he suggested.

DT News contacted some expat workers, who strongly objected the proposal.

According to a worker, the average salary earned by labourers is about BD100 a month. “Of that, around BD60 is spent to meet the living expenses in Bahrain. What remains is BD40, which is insufficient to meet the needs of our families back in our homeland. And this is the situation when we get subsidies!” he said.

 He said they come here, thousands of miles away from home, not to show bare hands to their families when they require support.

 Another worker echoed the same view and said if the subsidies are removed their living expenses would simply soar. “And whatever we earn here will be spent here – sparing nothing for our families. This would question the whole purpose of working in Bahrain,” he said.

 He requested the authorities to first raise the minimum salaries to BD150, before removing subsidies.

 “Unless and until the minimum salary is not fixed up to this level, the decision of removing subsidies would not be feasible,” he said.