The government has increased heating fuel (diesel) allowances for state employees and approved means-tested cash benefits to mitigate the effects of increased commodity prices. An estimated 2m public-sector workers and pensioners will benefit from a 72% increase in their heating allowance to S£1,500 (US$33) per month. The finance minister, Mohammed al-Hussein, said that the overall annual cost would be S£15bn (US$320m). The government's social security fund has also been authorised to disburse between S£500 and S£3,500 per month to 415,000 poorer families, divided into four bands based on their assessed income.

These measures have come amid popular protests in several Middle Eastern countries at increases in food and fuel prices. However, the government has been aware for some time of the need to provide extra benefits for people living in extreme poverty, in particular in the north-east, which has been hit hard by successive years of drought, and its actions appear not to have been merely a reaction to the events in Tunisia. The increase in fuel allowances also appears to have been aimed partly at softening the impact of the impending increases in the price of fuel oil (used mainly by industries) as part of its broader programme of phasing out petroleum price subsidies. From April 1st the price of fuel oil for industrial use is scheduled to rise from S£8,500/tonne to S£13,000/tonne. Further increases are planned, to S£16,000/tonne in January 2012 and S£20,000/tonne in 2013. Finally in 2014, the international market price will apply. The current subsidised price is equivalent to about 30% of the world market price, according to the most recent available figures from Mahrukat, the state fuel-distribution agency.

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