KUWAIT: The ministry of commerce and industry plans to firmly apply a new law on recruiting household labor, a senior official warned yesterday.

The ministry recently set the cost of employing domestic labor through a company at KD 990 ($3,267) and KD 390 ($1,287) by individuals.

Strict penalties will be imposed on recruitment companies that do not commit to the ceiling imposed by the ministry, which could amount to a shutdown of the office and the confiscation of its license.

The ministry had granted recruitment offices a fortnight to offer their own cost estimation for recruitment to avoid any arbitrary action against them, but found a huge gap between their costs and that estimated by the foreign ministry. - KUNA