The Labor Ministry is planning to introduce a “salary protection” program to put a ceiling on remittances by guest workers, reports quoting Labor Minister Adel Fakieh said Monday. Expats must keep the bulk of their salaries within the country under the new program, Al-Arabia quoted the minister as saying. “About nine out of 10 workers in the country are foreigners,” Fakieh said. “This has led to millions of riyals being transferred back to their home countries, harming the local economy,” he added. In 2010, expats sent home SR98.2 billion ($26.2 billion) in remittances, almost double the value of remittances in 2005, according to SAMA estimates. The World Bank has ranked Saudi Arabia in second place among the world's largest remittance-sending countries, only behind the US. Total expatriate workers' remittances from the GCC rose to $63.75 billion in 2010 from $60.03 billion in the previous year, up 6.1 per cent compared to an upturn of 2.44 percent in worldwide remittances that, according the World Bank, reached $325 billion from $317.23 billion in 2009. Remittances to Pakistan in July-September 2011 from Saudi Arabia amounted to $854.18 million, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). India was the world's largest remittance recipient in 2010 with $55 billion transferred to India by expatriates. The GCC contributed 30 percent of India's total remittances. Remittances to the Philippines from Saudi Arabia amounted to $1.544 billion in 2010 or around 8.2 percent of the cumulative $18.763 billion in cash sent home by all overseas Filipino Workers from around the world, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas statistics. Egypt, which counts remittances as among its top sources of hard currency along with tourism and Suez Canal receipts, got $1 billion in remittances from Saudi Arabia in the last fiscal year.
