RIYADH: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has announced Saturday anamendment in its resident permit fee structure and periods for individualsand their families working as employees while saying it will scrap Kafeelsystem.

The Ministry of Human Resource and Social Development of KSA noted thatplans to change stricter rules are underway and the ministry isreconsidering its regulations to extend relaxation to foreign employees.

According to the details, the KSA media reported labor policy secretary forthe ministry addressing their chambers of trade and industries workshopwherein he said his ministry is taking notice of fee levy on internationalemployees.

We are considering changing yearly fee structure into quarterly which islikely to address a number of issues faced by private sector in the country.

Iqama renewal fees, he noted, is paid by the employer, and noted that afterreforms in the labor policies, the kafeel system will be axed and replacedwith an agreement between employer and the employee instead.

The secretary further said link hisministry rolled out labor reforms on November 4 last year which will remainin force until March 14, according to which if the employee chooses tochange his employer or job contract before the agreement of two years, hewill have to pay the penalty as enshrined in the new policies.