Kuwait has completed a feasibility study on plans to privatize power and water facilities to ease a heavy financial burden on the state coffers, a newspaper said on Monday.

The Technical Commission for Privatisation Programmes has prepared the study, which will be presented shortly to the cabinet, the Arabic language daily Alqabas said.

It quoted official sources as saying the study highlighted obstacles blocking plans to sell some power and water facilities to the private sector.

“The study aims to identify problems facing this process, which is intended to upgrade electricity and water services, and ease the burden on the state finances,” it said.

The study quoted the sources as saying the plan could take five years to be implemented and that government subsidies to power and water services have cost the state nearly six billion Iraqi dinars ($19.8 billion) over the past three years.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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