Saudi’s $3.1b plan to ease expat fee costs

Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has approved a plan to ease levies businesses pay on foreign workers to help revive economic growth.
Authorities will exempt some companies from paying the 2018 fees or reimburse those that have already paid, according to the official-Saudi Press Agency. To qualify for the aid, businesses need to have made strides in hiring more Saudi nationals.
The government has allocated 11.5 billion riyals ($3.1 billion) for the plan, according to SPA. It aims to encourage companies that haven’t done enough to expa-nded their Saudi work force enough.
About 350,000 companies would benefit from the decision, Al Eqtisadiah newspaper reported, citing people it didn’t identify.