143.5 million dinars total cost of food subsidy bills in the first half
Tareq Araabi: Official figures recently issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry revealed that the total value of the subsidy bill for foodstuffs, infant milk and nutrition, and construction materials during the first half of the current year reached 143.5 million dinars. Basic foodstuffs accounted for approximately 77.43 million dinars, representing 53.96%, while the total subsidy for infant milk and nutrition amounted to about 9.23 million dinars, or 6.43%. Construction materials received a subsidy of 56.75 million dinars, accounting for 39.55%.
According to the figures, January recorded the highest subsidy value for foodstuffs, totaling 31.3 million dinars, followed by February with a food subsidy of 27.4 million dinars, then June with a subsidy of 24.3 million dinars, April with 21.3 million dinars, March with 19.8 million dinars, and finally May, where the total subsidy value declined to 19.2 million dinars.
The total subsidy for basic materials peaked in January and June at 15.6 million dinars each, before gradually declining. Basic material support dropped to approximately 14.7 million dinars in February, then to 9.7 million dinars in March, before rising again in April to 11.3 million dinars, and falling in May to 10.3 million dinars. Regarding infant milk and nutrition, June recorded the highest subsidy value at 1.9 million dinars, compared to 1.3 million dinars in January, 1.5 million dinars in both February and March, and 1.4 million dinars in both April and May.
As for the subsidy for construction materials, it stood at 14.3 million dinars in January, then 11 million in February, before declining to approximately 8.5 million dinars in both March and April, then to 7.4 million dinars in May, and finally 6.7 million dinars in June.
Meanwhile, the figures showed that the cumulative number of ration cards by the end of last June reached approximately 279,753 cards, while the number of individuals benefiting from cumulative rationing by the end of May stood at approximately 2,396,440 beneficiaries.
It is worth noting that the list of subsidized food items includes 89 categories, including basic food products such as rice, lentils, sugar, vegetable oil, milk powder, infant milk, chicken, and tomato paste, in addition to 27 discounted products. This means that the list of subsidized and discounted food items totals approximately 116 categories provided to Kuwaiti citizens through the ration card.
