Alwaght- Petrol prices in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and some other Persian Gulf States were have been increased as part of the effort of the monarchies to boost revenues hit by slumping oil prices and involvement in regional conflicts.
The Bahraini regime’s cabinet said in a statement carried by state news agency BNA on Monday that its weekly meeting set the new price for super fuel at 160 Bahraini fils ($0.424) per litre from 100 fils, while the price for regular fuel would be raised to 125 fils per litre from 90 fils. The new prices will take effect on Tuesday.
Like other Persian Gulf oil-exporting states, Bahrain has for many years subsidized goods and services such as food, fuel, electricity and water, keeping prices ultra-low in an effort to buy loyalty for the ruling monarchy.
But since its oil income began to fall last year, the Aal Khalifa ruling regime’s budget deficit has widened and the subsidies have become much harder for Bahrain to afford.
Meanwhile the Saudi regime has revealed a series of fuel-related subsidy reforms to lower current expenditures and bolster the monarchy’s finances dented by the downturn in global oil prices and direct involvement in destabilizing regional countries including Syria and Iraq by financing terrorist groups and engaging in an endless and brutal aggression against Yemen.
The new measures imposed by the Saudi regime on the kingdom’s poor citizens include a 50 per cent increase in higher quality 95-octane petrol prices, a 66 per cent increase in lower quality 91-grade petrol prices, and a 74 per cent increase in diesel fuel prices.
Saudi Arabia is particularly vulnerable to oil price declines because oil and gas-related revenues have historically accounted for around 90 per cent of government revenues.
Experts say the recent escalation in geopolitical tensions with Iran following the fallout from the execution of a prominent Islamic scholar Sheikh Nimr Baqir alNimr in Saudi Arabia will likely add to fiscal pressures.
The warmongering Saudi regime’s 2016 budget has allocated 25 per cent of its spending on military and security services alone, much higher than the US at around 15 per cent of total government spending.
The Saudi regime has been blamed for destabilizing global oil market by pumping more crude and driving the prices to record lows.
Saudi Arabia in 2015 increased production by 1.5 million barrels per day, thus effectively destabilizing the situation on the market.