Co-op investors in tunnel of ‘MoSA’ confusion over rents

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Union waiting for correspondence to end

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 8: In light of Ministry of Social Affairs’ reluctance to take decisions and address the repercussions of the corona pandemic on its activities, entrepreneurs and investors from cooperative societies find themselves in a tunnel of confusion between waiting for what they believe – in the promise to either exempt them from rents for the closure period or reduce the rents for them – between the pressure mounting on them to pay outstanding rents, reports Al-Jarida daily.

The daily quoting sources affirmed that the rent ball in cooperative societies is still in the hand of the Ministry of Social Affairs, while the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies stands by waiting for the correspondence to end, with its insistence on paying rental values without regard for the repercussions of corona and its impact on investors – especially the young people who feel neglected by the indecisive and binding decision of exemption or reducing the rental value of shops after the huge financial losses they suffered as a result of the closure for months.

Decision
Last May, the Council of Ministers issued a decision regarding the legal effects and precautionary measures in confronting the spread of the virus on contracts for using private state property, directing the ministries and government agencies to exempt the tenants contracting with them from the rental value or license fees for using the units or public markets and other activities that have been stopped because of the pandemic. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance decided to exempt cooperative societies from state property fees by 30 percent, as of last April until the end of the precautionary measures.

Sources revealed that the Ministry of Social Affairs asked the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies for its vision of exempting the invested branches from the rental value, noting the Finance Ministry’s decision to exempt cooperatives from fees is still pending until a specific implementation mechanism is settled.

They added the union responded on three scenarios but the Ministry of Social Affairs raised a proposal contrary to those perceptions, which aimed to direct cooperative boards on the payment of rental value for state property, which would be reduced by 30 percent in support of shops and investment activities in the form of reducing monthly rents, considering the proposal achieves the equation without it harming the society or affecting its financial position.

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