JEDDAH — The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has exempted private sector companies and establishments from bearing the outstanding government fees of workers who are transferring their services to these facilities. The new rule will be applicable to workers whose services are being transferred effective from June 9, Okaz/Saudi Gazette has learned. According to the new decision, the company or establishment from where the worker is seeking transfer of service has to bear the outstanding government dues, including work permit fee, expatriate fee (financial compensation), and fines for the delay in the renewal of residency permit (iqama). The ministry's Qiwa platform has begun activating the decision of charging these fees from the workers' previous employers. The Qiwa sources stated that the new decision will not be applicable to workers whose services have been transferred before June 9. The decision aims to enable new enterprises to carry out their businesses without unexpected financial obligations, and thus ensuring them fair competition with other enterprises, in addition to not exposing them to financial difficulties. Under the previous mechanism, the establishments, which are seeking the transfer of service of workers, had to bear the fees for work permits, expatriate levy and fines for the delay in the renewal of iqama. Meanwhile, the number of private sector establishments in the Kingdom reached 773,175 by the end of the first quarter of 2022. The number of non-Saudi subscribers of the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) in these establishments stood at about 6.61 million male and female workers. The private sector establishments, where foreign workers are more than Saudis, have to pay an annual fee amounting to SR9600 (SR800 per month) for each foreign worker. A few months ago, the government introduced a new system of split payment of the government fee on a quarterly, half-yearly and three-quarterly basis, apart from the previous system of the annual payment for the renewal of work permit and iqama.
