RIYADH — The government increased the provision for salaries, allowances and wages by about 3 percent (SR8.7 billion) in its general budget for the fiscal year 2015 to reach SR323 billion, compared to SR314 billion in 2014, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported on Sunday. The salaries, allowances and workers' wages constituted about 38 percent of last year's budget, estimated to be SR860 billion, while they constituted about 33 percent of the actual expenditures, which were SR975 billion. The salaries paid last year were SR239.2 billion while SR79.2 billion were paid in allowances and SR4.3 billion in wages of workers. By the end of 2014, the number of the government military and civil employees was 3.32 million. According to the daily, the allocations made for salaries, allowances and wages in the last six budgets (2010-2015) amounted to SR1.7 trillion. It was SR223.9 billion in 2010 and 2011 budgets, up by 13 percent (SR31.6 billion) in the budget of 2012. The provisions increased by about 13 percent (SR34.3 billion) in 2013 and 4 percent (SR11.3 billion) in 2014. These provisions constituted about 41 percent of the government's budgets for 2010 and 2011, which were SR540 billion and SR580 billion respectively. They made up about 39 percent of the estimated budget of 2012, which was SR690 billion and about 37 percent of the estimated budgets of 2013 and 2014 which were SR820 billion and SR855 billion respectively. The salaries and allowances paid to the government employees constituted about 29 percent of the actual expenditures of the 2014 budget, which was SR1.1 trillion.
