Government ensures good living despite low oil prices

Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah affirmed Sunday that the government spares no effort to ensure that the decline of the oil prices have no negative impacts on the good living of all citizens.
Speaking to reporters after a joint meeting by the legislative and executive authorities at the National Assembly speaker's office, he ruled out the possibility of any government measure that could affect the citizens, particularly the medium or low income people.
"The meeting, chaired by Speaker of the National Assembly Marzouq Al-Ghanim, was dedicated for a discussion on the plummeting oil prices and the government policy in this regard," he stated.
"The government presented the relevant data and visions for addressing this problem in a video presentation detailing the causes of the decline of the oil prices as well as its impact on the state budget. We agreed to resume the debate in the coming few weeks and respond to questions of MPs," Sheikh Mohammad pointed out.
Asked whether the government plans to levy any taxes or cut subsidy for some goods or services, he said: "Everybody knows that fees and taxes are one of sources of national income for any country in the world, but we still explore a mechanism for addressing this issue.
"Anyway, the constitution stipulates that no measure in this connection could be made except through a legislation passed by the National Assembly." He affirmed that the government has not thought of levying any taxes so far but only thinks of restructuring the expenditure to ensures that there is no extravagance.
Sheikh Mohammad added that government representatives will be meeting the leaders of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) tomorrow, Monday, to review the appropriations for the allowances of senior officials for overseas missions.
"There should be no panic over the financial situation. So far so good, the strategists of the Finance Ministry are working on alternatives for addressing the matter," he made clear.
Besides the supply-demand equation, geopolitical factors in the Middle East contributed to the recent decline of the oil prices since politics and economy are interrelated.
"The OPEC output represents 30 percent of the world's total and Kuwait's quota represents eight percent of OPEC's," he added.
Alongside with Sheikh Mohammad and Al-Ghanim, the joint meeting gathered Minister of Finance Anas Al-Saleh, and Minister of Oil and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Dr. Ali Al-Omair, as well as other senior government officials and law-makers.
Source: KUNA