Banks in Saudi Arabia are considering limiting the amount of cash that expatriates residing in the kingdom can send home, reports Arab News.
The potential limitation would be in affiliation with the Ministry of Labor’s Nitaqat Program being phased into Saudi Arabia. The ministry created the program in an effort to boost Saudi nationals’ employment, and has been squeezing out the expatriate community. The Saudi government sought to assess the rising problem of foreign workers within the country, which include many Indian and US nationals, who have taken advantage of their work visas and overstayed residency.
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According to The Wall Street Journal, the policy was issued in 2011 and ruled that 5-to-30 percent of employees in a Saudi company should be national citizens. As a result, an increasing number of expatriates that lived in Saudi have returned home.
The new regulations would order banks to prevent expatriate employees from transferring amounts that exceed their monthly income. Moreover, the banks may soon be able to freeze or refuse expatriate accounts for individuals who have failed to rectify their visa status.
Adel Al-Hawwar, senior executive vice-chairman of retail banking at the National Commercial Bank, said to Arab News, “So far we have not blocked anyone from opening an account, even those not licensed to work in the Kingdom.”
Arab News reports that people in the country have argued that banks have no business enforcing these types of regulations, and said the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency should only have authority on such matters.
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“It’s unlikely that the banks will take this step at present. There is a system to protect wages, and it is meant to protect the rights of workers. It is also mean to ensure companies pay the salaries of workers as stated in their contracts,” Al-Hawwar told Arab News.
He concluded, “There is ongoing coordination between the Ministry of Labor and SAMA to keep checking on whether or not employers are complying with regulations regarding worker payment and wage protection and other matters.”
To read the full story at Arab News click here, or to read the article at Live Mint of The Wall Street Journal, click here.
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