KUWAIT CITY, March 13: The parliamentary Financial and Economic Committee seeks the inclusion of expatriates to a bill that aims to resolve the issue of loan defaulters, said committee chairman MP Yousef Al-Zalzalah.

He said that the idea will be raised during discussions on the debt relief plan at the upcoming parliament session next week or at subsequent meetings on the issue. “The injustice done is one in this case,” he stated.

Meanwhile, MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai expressed reservations on the reached agreement between the Financial and Economic Committee and the Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shammali.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, he said that the proposed bill announced on Tuesday does not resolve the actual debt problem, as the majority of the concerned citizens have been paying off their principle loans without interest.

“The meeting on Tuesday discussed granting billions to traders to buy the principle loans which are in actuality not the problem nor are the interests the problem. The problem is the illegal interests that were incurred,” he stated.

Al-Fuzai, who’s grilling against the Finance Minister was postponed to the next legislative round, said the joint proposal does not return the amounts paid by loan-takers due to the high “illegal interest rates” imposed by banks prior to March 2008.

He added that the Central Bank of Kuwait requirements and regulations in March 2008 in regards to loans and loan interests obliged banks to re-examine the interests on loan contracts with clients. The Central Bank on May 2008 sent the banks an account of the clients who should pay back their principle loans without interest, which debtors who’ve taken out loan from before March 30, 2008 were already doing.

“The interests before March 30, 2008 were effectively dropped and citizens are now paying-off the initial loan. There is a segment that does not exceed five percent paying off interests but 90 percent are paying off their principle loans,” he explained.

Al-Fuzai said he will submit a proposal on March 19 that stipulates banks to return illegal interests they’ve taken from clients, especially those on the Central Bank’s account in May 2008.

Criticized

MP Yaqoub Al-Sana’ further criticized the agreement, believing that the banks should pay back the money unjustly taken from debtors. He said that the agreed upon formula between both authorities does not achieve justice or resolve the issue and will be a heavy burden on state funds.

Al-Sana’ said that the government should not focus on such a “marginal issue” at the expense of housing, development and health issues. He added the proposed bill has yet to outline important aspects and needs further study and advised the concerned segment who will benefit from the proposed bill to ask their respective banks for a detailed account of their repayments and interests.

Meanwhile, MP Khalid Al-Shatti has submitted a proposal to set up the system to evaluate both the public and private schools in Kuwait which are approved by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The proposal also calls for arranging school fees in private schools based on this evaluation, whereby the maximum fees to be determined in accordance with the academic ranking of the school.

On another issue, MPs Nasser Al-Muri, Faisal Al-Kandari, Badr Bathali, and Hamad Al-Harshani have submitted a proposal calling for shifting the Shuwaikh and Doha ports to the south and north of Kuwait and transform the existing sites to commercial and recreational zones to reduce environmental pollution and traffic congestion.

The proposal also calls for acquiring private houses in Ahmadi, Fahaheel and Ali Al-Salem to convert them into commercial and/or service zones and shifting the current industrial, handicrafts and scrap areas to off-line organization and convert existing sites to private housing which then can be distributed to beneficiaries of housing care.

They also proposed converting the plots of land owned by the State in Khaitan to private housing to be distributed to beneficiaries of housing care.

Furthermore, MP Yaqoub Al-Sane has presented a draft bill for the establishment of ‘Economic Court’ in the Court of Appeals. According to the bill the head of the court and judges should come from the courts of Appeal and lower courts and elected by Higher Judicial Council.

According to Article (4) of the bill the work of the economic court will be to look into criminal cases that arise from crimes stipulated in the following laws – the Commercial Companies Law, firms and insurance agents law, regulating commercial agencies law, intellectual property organization law, monetary and the Central Bank of Kuwait and the banking profession law, Capital Markets Authority Law, Commercial Law, Protection of Competition Law, Fraud Control in Commercial Transactions Law, Public Tenders Law and, Law No.41/1993 in relation to the state buying some debts and how to collect them.
Meanwhile, MP Adnan Abdul-Samad has forwarded a parliamentary query to the Minister of Communications and Housing Salem Al-Othaina to know the reason why there are no shipping lines for Kuwait on which the country can depend to transport goods imported from abroad directly to its ports.

Operations
He also wants to know why the shipping line owned by Kuwaiti Shipping Company that was established long ago has stopped operations – the same site is not being used for other purposes after it was leased to ‘others’.

He explained as long as the Kuwaiti economy is based on trade and import, it has become necessary for the State to have maritime commercial fleet for transporting goods.

He said this was why a number of Kuwaiti ports were established and Kuwait was a pioneer in maritime transport in olden days through its navigation line route (Kuwait Shipping Company).

He added that this company was established in the middle of the last century and established its headquarters and provided many employment opportunities but unfortunately the site of this shipping line is now owned by the state and leased to others.

He said the stoppage of the shipping line has had adverse effects on trade and traders. The Kuwaiti imports cannot be transported directly to its ports, and instead the imports arrive via the Dubai port through ‘rickety’ vessels, resulting in arrival delay and increase in prices of goods due to increase in transportation cost.