I FOLLOWED with great concern the sudden awakening of the government and its intention to impose taxes on citizens after the approval of new salary scales in government authorities. The question here is: What was the opinion of the government on the issue and why didn’t it consult its many experts before approving the increments? If we assume, for the sake of argument that the National Assembly tried to appease and satisfy its voters, why didn’t the government reject the proposal as it did the bill on customs warehouses? Or the way it opposed the establishment of the third telecommunications company and the KD 50 increase in pension of retirees and other such proposals?

In fact, the government plays a role in the adjournment of parliamentary sessions by ensuring that quorum is not reached. Moreover, the government has been demolishing the administrative structure of the state through arbitrary appointments at leading positions in order to pay the ‘invoices of interrogations.’ Did the government perform its role and confront the contractors who tamper with the tenders and either increase the cost of projects to double the value or reduce it by half? Did the government exercise its power on state’s real estate properties by cancelling the expired contracts or through the Touristic Enterprises Company, which is fully owned by the government and controls the whole coastal side of Kuwait? The state’s annual revenue from all its investors is KD 1.650 million.

Isn’t it the government which proposed the billion value portfolio? But it was for whom and why and how many beneficiaries are there? One of the recent achievements of the government is the approval of the new airport expansion project — tender B whose cost jumped from KD 200 million to KD 600 million, while a big fuss was made for increasing pension of retirees by KD 50.
Speaking of the Shuwaikh Industrial Area, how much is the leasing cost of a meter per year and how much if it is sublet? Some of it is said to be costing KD 30/m because the constitutional government is not managing the country; it is the hidden government which has the power.
The tax law has been in the drawers of the Ministry of Finance since many years but nobody managed to discuss it. So let the taxes be imposed on those with high incomes and on those with large financial deposits in banks, like how merchants pay for their funds in USA and Europe.

The citizen is ready to pay taxes but under the condition that he be provided excellent services in hospitals, schools, universities and good infrastructure facilities like roads and other services as is the case in any European country. Also those who have real estate properties and flats in Europe or in Arab countries should be compelled to pay taxes and fees. They pay it without protest in those countries because of the good services and fair treatment offered there.
The government’s proposal is illogical because it should first of all control its departments and stop the tampering in projects instead of calling for taxes which should be studied carefully. It seems the government is looking for confrontation with people by proposing such laws. It calls these laws reforms, but they are unfortunately not.

A question to the wise government: Does the government have full perception of the US debt crisis and its effects on the international market?
Did it set up an emergency plan for such issues? Or are things going without any planning?
May God Almighty bless us in the month of Ramadan and offer us mercy, forgiveness and redemption from hell.

Email: Youssef @yalmubaraki.com