Al-Qabas daily reports that government agencies have waged a war against organized gang networks that are depleting state-subsidized food commodities and smuggling them overseas for years. More stringent punitive measures are being taken against smugglers and agencies that assist or facilitate smuggling operations.

The General Administration of Customs reported that customs officers successfully seized tens of thousands of food supplies during the year 2022. They included about 200,000 food packages, some of which were smuggled abroad through land ports.

In recent months, some individuals and shipping companies have attempted to smuggle these materials to neighboring countries or some Arab and Asian countries, with high levels of vigilance among customs officers and other authorities.

Several sources described the efforts made by the customs supervisors on the ground as "great", given the fact that they disrupt dozens of attempts every day to smuggle supplies and other prohibited materials and money.

In addition to emptying food supplies into transparent plastic containers and placing them inside electrical appliances, smugglers devise countless methods for smuggling food supplies every day. Some others try to distribute them to personal vehicles, as part of their miserable attempts to get them out of the country.

More than 200,000 subsidized commodities were seized during the past year, including rice, flour, milk, pasta, and cooking oil.

Cooking oil and milk are the most prominent commodities targeted by smugglers and the largest in size when seized.

The total value of the materials seized annually exceeds one million dinars. In such cases, the General Administration of Customs issues seizure reports in accordance with urgent instructions and refers them to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to protect them.

Due to the numerous attempts to smuggle subsidized supplies out of the country in violation of the law, Suleiman Al-Fahad, Director General of the General Administration of Customs, issued instructions in September to increase the fine for violating customs smuggling to three times its value, the maximum under the Unified Customs Law.

Customs inspectors seized 500 items last year, including food supplies and other illegal items that were being attempted to be smuggled abroad, according to administration reports.

According to customs sources, the highest number of food smuggling attempts take place through the Sulaibiya and Shubra al-Khader customs outlets. In the past year, 226 attempts to smuggle goods have been seized, an increase from the 197 attempts made in 2021.

In comparison with cooperative societies and parallel markets, the monthly subsidized food items that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry provides to citizens are considered to be of distinct nutritional and financial value. Some take advantage of the state’s support for 74 different commodities, and they smuggle them abroad to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and other countries. It is popular in the market and offered at prices that are four times the subsidized price.

For example, the value of a bag of Kuwaiti subsidized rice (weighing 50 kg) in the Saudi market amounts to 350 Saudi Riyals (KD 28.62), while it is bought in Kuwait for only KD 6 (74 Saudi Riyals). One kilogram of it is sold for 8 riyals, while Kuwait offers it to the beneficiaries for only 1.4 riyals.

In Kuwait, milk powder is provided to its citizens at a cost of KD 1,050, while it is sold in Saudi Arabia for 60 riyals (about KD 5), more than three times the real cost.

Ration card numbers and data -

- 2.1 million registered in the ration card system

- KD 210 million annual cost to cover supplies

- 49 percent of the population benefits from the catering system

Head of the Consumer Protection Department Mishaal Al-Mana called for tougher penalties for smugglers of subsidized food supplies and those who help them do so.

He stressed the need to increase vigilance and complete auditing and inspection at land outlets.

According to Al-Manea, the cooperative societies are primarily responsible for the distribution operations, as they failed to benefit from the Kuwaiti retirees' experience and did not employ them to manage supply chains. Supply department workers are not being paid a fair salary, and citizens who benefit from the supply have assigned others to obtain the rations without checking the quantities spent and the extent of the real need. This has led to a decline in oversight.

There is an automated exchange system in place at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, but the main problem is how to control and tighten it, since a balance must be struck between the administrative part and the commercial value, as well as the control of the exchange volume, and this can be achieved by internally monitoring and educating the person concerned to attend to obtaining shares and verifying payment value..”