Some people always remain in the dark and appear in public only when the government intends to haunt citizens' pockets for economic reasons. By appearing in the media, those people create a state of panic about our economy, which I am not claiming is in a good place. It is actually falling apart. I mean that those people come out to explain how deteriorated the economy is due to the fall of oil prices. They will also argue that simple poor citizens have to take their part of the responsibility to solve the economic problem.

Some of them would even go as far as suggesting that it would be okay if citizens give away a part of their salaries and incentives to contribute to reducing expenditure. The suspicious economic reform plan suggested by the government, approved by the 2013 parliament and promoted by the government's economists proves this. The plan suggested reducing the National Labor Support allowance by 10 percent. Well, assuming that citizens working in the private sector receive an average salary of KD 550 a month, this means deducting KD 55 a month and KD 660 a year.

According to the latest statistics, the total number of citizens working in the private sector is 73,000, which means that the government would annually save around KD 48 million by cutting down their salaries by 10 percent. I do not wish to speak about the legality, constitutionality or even logic in cutting down the allowances; which was originally set by law to encourage more citizens to join the private sector. Let me talk about the KD 48 million the state will save by this unusual economic procedure.

This amount is less than five percent of the value of one of the failing unfinished projects. It is not even worth half the value of the cost changes in projects worth millions of dinars. It is less than half the value of a tender to provide devices to ministries that are often end up not used. It is not even equal to 10 percent of the costs spent on the overseas treatment program. Solving financial squander should not go through the pockets of simple citizens and those with limited income. It should be done through solving the issue in various ministries. Citizens' pockets must be the last resort in any economic reform plans, but our politicians know nothing about economic principles when it comes to multibillion development projects. Such an economic reform attempt is but a sugarcoated form of corruption disguised as reform.--Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Anbaa

By Thaar Al-Rasheedi