The new law to be implemented by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) with regard to labour levy, with BD5 each worker for organisations up to five employees and BD10 each worker for bigger entities, will financially help almost 78% of the small and medium enterprises.
This was announced by the Minister of State for Information Affairs and official government spokesperson Sameera Rajab during weekly cabinet media briefing on Sunday. She said that the Cabinet discussed and approved a memorandum presented by the Finance Minister regarding the monthly Labour Market Regulatory Authority fee for hiring foreign worker.
As part of the Cabinet’s desire to ease the financial burdens on traders, especially small commercial businesses in the Kingdom, the Cabinet approved a new system of fees in the Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) whereby the calculated labor fee is reduced to 5 Bahraini Dinars per month for the first five employees within an institution and the full fee which is 10 Bahraini Dinars to be enforced from the sixth employee onwards. The new fees take effect as of September 1, 2013.
This reduction in fees will benefit all small businesses employing less than five employees (which constitutes 78% of the total institutions operating in Bahrain).