Remittance tax deliberation timed out
MPs GIVE SECOND-READ NOD TO COMMERCIAL REGISTER BILL
Debate likely Wednesday
KUWAIT CITY, April 17: The National Assembly, during its second reading Tuesday, has given nod for the Commercial Register Bill.
Meanwhile, the Assembly could not discuss the bills on taxing expatriate remittances, which were tabled to be discussed today, because of lack of time, and will possibly take them up during Wednesday’s session.
The Commercial Register Bill punishes those who ‘sell’ their licence to others and manipulate the data of companies. The bill also gives powers for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry employees to arrest the violators.
The bill was adopted unanimously during the second reading with all 53 MPs present voting in favor of the bill. This came when the National Assembly moved to discuss the report of the Finance and Economic Affairs Committee on a draft law on the Commercial Register.
One of the articles of the draft law stipulates the following: “A register shall be established in the Ministry, called the Commercial Register, which shall be supervised by the competent department.”
According to one of the articles of the Commercial Register, “Every trader shall be bound by the registration and this includes obligating commercial representation offices, commercial agencies and branches of foreign companies legally permitted to do business with the head officer abroad. The registration in this case shall be in the name of the trader or the manager of the branch of the company or agency carrying the same commercial registration number.”
One of the proscribed articles states “a person who is registered in the Commercial Register shall not be allowed to allow others to exploit his commercial register. It is also forbidden for third parties to exploit any commercial register which is not in his name. This shall be clearly mentioned in the shop.
One of the articles of the draft law referred to penalties as follows: “Without prejudice to any more severe punishment provided for in the Penal Code or any other law, a fine of not less than KD 1,000 (about $3,000) and not more than KD 20,000.
“Anyone who contravenes the provisions of Article 9 of this Law and anyone who deliberately submits incorrect data whether in the registration particulars, by marking in the register or by omitting, shall be subjected to same punishment.
“This is in addition to carrying out the correction of the data by the court order in accordance with the conditions and on the dates specified by it and with a decision of the competent minister, a commercial establishment shall be closed administratively after the violation has been determined and the closure decision shall be submitted to the competent court to hear the administrative case within.”
It is punishable with a fine not less than KD 1,000 and not more than KD 5,000 for any person who contravenes the provisions of Articles (3), (2), (6), (8), and (2) and (12) and (13) of this law.
Concerning the powers of arrest, one of the articles stipulates that “the competent minister shall issue a decision to identify the employees authorized to control violations of this law and the regulations and decisions issued in implementation thereof, and to release the necessary records in case of violation and refer them to the competent authorities. The executive regulations shall regulate the procedures of powers of arrest.
The Parliament also approved in its second deliberation a draft law amending the private sector the labor law to include retired employees of the oil sector from 2010 to 2017 with full end of service benefits and submit it to the government.
Article (1) of the bill stipulates that “the last paragraph of Article (51) of Law No. (6) for the year 2010 shall be replaced by the following provisions: The provisions of the Social Security Law shall be taken into account and the employee shall be entitled to full end of service indemnity upon completion of his service in the authority in which he works without deducting the money paid by this body for the participation of the employee in the Public Institution for Social Security during his term of office. This provision shall come into effect as of the date of application of Law No. (6) of 2010.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly rejected on Tuesday the request of the Public Prosecution to lift parliamentary immunity from MPs Hamad Al-Harashani, Juman Al-Harbash and Mohammed Hayef in the cases brought against them.
Furthermore, the government agreed to refer the file of the “Olympic Committee Deposits” to the Public Prosecution, which was raised by MP Riyadh Al-Adasani during the National Assembly session Tuesday.
The Parliament completed the discussion the issue of alleged cash deposits and withdrawals related to the Olympic Committee, the Federation of
Commissions and the Asian Olympic Committee without issuing any recommendation.
The Parliament also approved in its first reading the report of the Financial Committee on amending the social security, early retirement. The second reading will take place after two weeks.