Saudi Oil and Energy Minister Ali Al-Naimi (R) and Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf. (SPA)

The government is not planning to cut salaries and allowances of civil servants in a bid to save money, a source at the Ministry of Finance said here Sunday.

The announcement comes in the wake of rumors circulating on the social media that the government plans this measure to reduce the SR145 billion deficit in the coming year’s budget because of falling oil prices.

“The comments on social media that the government plans to cut wages, is baseless and has no validity,” the source said. “Neither Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf nor any other official from the ministry have made statements in this regard,” he said.

Some observers said the ministry’s reassurances are likely in response to the reaction caused by a report from the Associated Press that the government plans to reduce its wage bill.

AP said in a report that the SPA carried an official statement in English on Thursday, quoting an unnamed ministry official, that there would be “more efforts to reduce current expenditures, especially expenses of salaries, wages, allowances and the like, which represent nearly 50 percent of the approved budget expenditures” for 2015.

The statement comes at a time when Saudis are waiting for the results of studies carried out by government agencies to equalize public sector salaries of government employees in GCC countries.

An earlier decision by the ministry to raise the upper limit of the value of cars for top state officials also sparked outrage from the public across social networking sites, with many describing the decision as “unjustified.”

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