Subsidy disbursement date to be unified starting Feb 15

Based on the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister to ensure that optimal mechanisms are in place to directly disburse government subsidies to eligible citizens, the Ministry of Housing as well as Labour and Social Development Ministry has already taken necessary procedures to disburse the subsidies.

The move is also in line with the resolution of the Cabinet, during its previous weekly session, to unify the date of subsidy disbursement to citizens across five programmes. The Cabinet resolution stipulates that the subsidies will be disbursed in one payment, on the 15th of every month, starting from 15 February 2020. The operation will be monitored by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development. The first phase will exclude the allowance to improve the standard of living for retirees which will be disbursed at its current date, based on the directives of HRH the Crown Prince.

During a meeting with the local press yesterday, in the presence of Assistant Undersecretary for Policies and Housing Services, Dr Khalid Al Haidan, and Systems Management Director at the Social Insurance Organisation, Elyas Yussef Abdulghaffar, Labour and Social Development Minister, Jameel Humaidan, lauded the Cabinet’s resolution, stressing the government’s keenness to continue delivering subsidies for the citizens who need them. He pointed out that unifying the subsidy disbursement date will increase the citizens’ benefits, as the sums of all programmes will enable them to meet the needs of their families.

He added that the delivery of direct subsidies to eligible citizens will continue for all those registered in the lists of various programmes, noting that beneficiaries can be informed about the details of the sums to be disbursed through visiting the e-Government Portal (bahrain. bh) or calling National Call Centre on 80008001. Regarding the meat subsidy compensation, he said that it will be disbursed on April 15, along with other subsidy programmes, noting that the last meat subsidy payout was in the first week of January 2020 for the months of January, February and March.