Kuwait's parliament has unanimously approved a law waiving KD2,000 ($6,850) worth of electricity bills for each Kuwaiti family.

The waiver of electricity costs was expected to cost around $1 billion to state coffers, but Kuwait is set to almost double its budget surplus in 2005-2006, reaping up to $18.5 billion, according to independent economic reports.
In Kuwait, electricity and water are provided to citizens and expatriates at a heavily subsidised price.
Kuwait has in the past several months offered hefty grants to its nationals as oil income, which contributes more than 90 per cent of revenues, hit unprecedented levels due to high crude price and output.
Last month, parliament approved a KD50 ($171) monthly pay raise for tens of thousands of public and private sector workers and pensioners to meet rising living costs.
The measure, affecting about 100,000 public and private sector employees as well as some 80,000 pensioners, will cost the state budget some $480 million annually.
In December, parliament approved a grant of KD200 ($680) to every Kuwaiti national to help cope with the rise in living expenses, which cost the budget $650 million.
Some 90 per cent of Kuwait's 290,000-strong national workforce have government jobs.
Kuwait posted a combined surplus of $30 billion in the past six fiscal years due to rising oil prices and output.
The figure does not include billions of dollars of returns on foreign assets, estimated at $100 billion. Annual profit on foreign assets, which is not made public, is estimated at $4 billion to $5 billion.