Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The number of expatriate workers has gone down by about 62,000 by the end of the second quarter of this year since the imposition of dependent’s fee which came into force in July, the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) said in a report.

Fees on expatriate workers were applied in July this year at the rate of SR100 per dependent per month. The fees will go up to SR200 in 2018, SR300 in 2019 and SR400 in 2020.

The number of expatriate workers has gone down to 10.788 million from 10.85 million at the end of the first quarter of 2017.

The Kingdom is determined to cut down unemployment rate among Saudis to 9% by 2020 and to 7% by 2030.

The Kingdom said it would nationalize 1.2 million jobs currently being occupied by expatriates by 2020.

From January, private sector companies will have to pay monthly fees ranging between SR300 and SR400 on expatriate workers.

The Finance Ministry announced last year that the expat levy will increase to SR600 in 2019 and to SR800 in 2020 in private companies which hire more foreigners than locals.

However, in companies where the number of foreign employees is less than that of locals, the levy will be SR300 in 2018 and it will gradually increase until it reaches SR700 in 2020.