Amid the challenge of high commodity prices and the rise in cost of services witnessed each year as Ramadan approaches, inspection teams affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry have embarked on extensive campaigns to curb artificial prices hike and violations in the domestic recruitment offices that raise the cost of recruitment or hire for citizens and expatriates on hourly basis.

In this regard, Al-Seyassah daily embarked on a market survey to discover the high cost of hiring domestic workers, which has shot up to KD 1,500 per housemaid (a difference of over KD 500 from the original cost of KD 990 announced by concerned authorities).

It was gathered that the cost of housemaid now ranges from KD1,000-KD1,700 depending on several criteria, chief among them the nationality. In this case, Filipinos are the costliest, followed by Indians and Sri Lankans, while Africans are the cheapest.

On the contrary, sources at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry informed that inspection campaigns conducted by the officials led to the issuance of several citations against traders of consumer items who hike prices without legal justification. They also withdrew licenses or fined several domestic recruitment offices over their involvement in inflating the prices of hiring domestic workers beyond KD 990. 

Some of the offices were also found guilty of encouraging housemaids to escape so that they could be re-registered under new sponsors, besides hiring them out on hourly basis. They urged the affected citizens and expatriates not to relent in submitting necessary complaints to the Consumer Protection Department concerning undue hike in prices of consumables or domestic  workers.

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