Saudi Arabia to expedite disbursal of outstanding payments to contractors, suppliers

Kingdom to form a comittee to tackle the government's dues

The company is part of the Vision 2030 strategy to raise ownership of homes to 52 per cent of citizens from around the current 47 per cent. Waseem Obaidi /The National

Saudi Arabia plans to expedite the disbursal of outstanding payments to private sector contractors and suppliers as the kingdom seeks to settle its dues that have caused mayhem for some companies.

King Salman issued a royal decree to tackle outstanding payments and form a committee comprising a number of government entities, headed by commerce and investment minister Majed Al Qasabi, state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Moday, quoting the minister.

The committee will categorise delayed payments in order to ascertain the reasons for late disbursal and uncover any practices that do not conform with payment procedures, such as providing the necessary disbursement documents to the finance ministry.

The committee will work with the head of the Council of Saudi Chambers to resolve pending issues. It will also come up with the appropriate solutions to make quick payments.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, is seeking to settle outstanding payments to contractors after delays caused financial strain for companies, including construction groups Saudi Bin Laden and the now defunct Saudi Oger.

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In September, Saudi Arabia said it had paid the majority of 525 billion riyals worth of invoices from the private sector received within 60 days of receipt.

The kingdom's ministry of finance said a total of 345,000 invoices relating to work for 450 government entities were paid up to the middle of September as part of the 2017 fiscal year. Ninety-eight per cent of all invoices representing 92 per cent of total dues were paid within 45 days. Only 2 per cent of the number of invoices took longer than 60 days to pay.