ARAB NEWS
JEDDAH, Mar 23: Prices of essential commodities and house rents have increased by 30 to 50 percent, prompting Saudis and expatriates to call for government intervention to curb the unprecedented phenomenon and for increasing their salaries to cope with the situation.
“The government should stop the monopoly of big companies that supply essential commodities,” Dr. Abdul Ilah Saaty of King Abdul Aziz University told Arab News. “Salaries must be increased further. The five-percent increase in salary is nothing compared to the price hike.”
Saaty urged the government to re-introduce subsidies for medicines, especially after the huge increase in medicine prices. The professor objected to cutting interest rates, saying it would push up inflation.
The Council of Ministers adopted a 17-point program on Jan. 28 in order to keep prices under control. It also increased the subsidies for rice, barley and baby milk. But people have not yet felt the effect of these measures.
“What we are lacking is a strict monitoring regime,” said Saaty, who is vice dean of the Community College. Growing prices have increased the worries of citizens, he said and called for new regulations to cut down prices.
“There is a considerable increase in commodity prices, especially foodstuffs. People receiving low salaries will definitely find it difficult to manage. The cost of living has doubled,” said Raman Madhu, assistant manager for logistics in a Jeddah-based company.
Increases in prices and house rents have forced many expatriate workers to leave the Kingdom because they could not make both ends meet. Most of them said they were unable to make any savings and that thus there was no point in staying in the Kingdom.
Madhu and many other expatriates are of the opinion that the present price hike in the Kingdom is artificial and could be solved if the government imposed strict measures. A family that was spending SR250 on weekly shopping is now spending SR500 and more, he said, adding: “There is something wrong somewhere.”
Real estate owners in main Saudi cities have increased rents without any real reason. “House rents have gone up 20 to 50 percent,” Madhu said.
“Rent is skyrocketing without any reason,” said P.J.J. Antony, president of Periyar Toastmasters in Jubail. “It is high time that the government interfered. Unlimited greed is breaking all ethics of landlord-tenant relationships and infringing the tenants’ basic rights,” he said.
“Some landlords ask tenants, especially expatriates, to vacate even though they pay high rents and threaten to cut electricity and water if they refused,” he said.
Antony said the landlord of his friend, also in Jubail, had increased his house rent by 100 percent from SR8,000 to SR16,000. “He has now decided to send his family on exit visa and move to bachelor accommodation,” Antony said. “Another colleague told me that his landlord increased rents from 11,000 to 15,000 first and was now demanding SR18,000,” he said.
Another landlord in Jubail even offered each of tenants SR10,000 if they check out, facilitating him to rent the entire building to a company at a much higher rate, Antony said.
Jubail is experiencing this irrational rent hike for the first time ever and some expatriates living in the city attributed the tremendous rent increases to a leakage of information on increases in house rent allowances of SABIC employees. They expect other companies as well to increase housing allowance for their employees.
“Many companies raised salaries of their employees on account of the price hike but to a maximum of 15 percent. Increases in rent and consumer prices coupled with falling exchange rate are making expatriates’ lives miserable,” Antony said.