The payments to contractors working on mega projects in Saudi Arabia have been regularised and will rise in the coming period, said a report citing the kingdom's finance minister.

Ibrahim Al Assaf pointed out that delays in state payments to construction firms were mainly due to "technical reasons".

"The payments have been regularised and will rise in the coming period," he said in an interview with Saudi-owned network MBC.

Saudi daily Okaz reported last month that the government had started to pay dues owed to Saudi Binladin Group, the kingdom’s biggest construction company, citing Abdullah Basodan, adviser to company chairman Bakr bin Mohammed Binladin.

Bloomberg too reported that the kingdom had started repaying debts to contractors after long delays that squeezed company finances and hurt investor sentiment.

Payments have started to some major builders as well as companies outside the construction industry, stated the report citing three people with knowledge of the matter.

Some companies were told 30 to 40 per cent of the outstanding dues will be paid by year-end, with the remainder to be settled in 2017, they added.

The kingdom is presently undergoing the biggest economic shake-up in its history in an attempt to reduce its reliance on oil. The government aims to raise more than $100 billion in non-oil revenue a year by 2020, through measures including value-added taxation.

The austerity drive caused the non-oil economy to shrink in the last three months of 2015 and the first quarter of this year. The country is working to shore up its finances, including through the sale of as much as $17.5 billion of dollar bonds.