Bahrain MPs are threatening to veto government spending plans if their demands for more money to be pumped into housing projects are not met.

Parliament's financial and economic affairs committee chairman Abduljalil Khalil said MPs wanted to channel some of the money earmarked for security into government housing projects.

He described the BD40 million ($106 million) that has been allocated to housing projects in the new draft budget as 'peanuts'.

'We will force the government to take from security budget and pump it into housing because if they don't, the budget will be stalled and even rejected,' he warned.

'Spending BD40 million in both years on housing is not a laughing matter, despite the amount being peanuts.

'It is painful as 50,000 families will have to wait for their government homes even longer.'

He also demanded to know why the Defence Ministry needed an extra BD72 million over the next two years and warned that MPs could seek to streamline the country's security services to save money.

'Parliament will push to have unnecessary security employees either put on pension or have their employment stopped, while pushing for security projects to be scrapped,' he said.

He said he was not against security spending, but stressed the need for more support to social welfare schemes.

'There are many pending housing demands that need to be looked at,' he said.

'We are not against spending on security ministries and organisations, but some of that money can be spent on the His Majesty King Hamad Scheme for Dilapidated Homes and the Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry's house renovation scheme.'

The new budget will be discussed in parliament once MPs and the government reach an initial agreement on its content.

However, if no agreement is reached, it could face delays or even rejected altogether by MPs.

In both cases, government spending would be put on hold until the deadlock was broken.

The last budget was delayed by four months after MPs refused to give it the go-ahead without an inflation allowance for needy families, more money for housing and additional cash for health and education.-TradeArabia News Service