Kuwait Times, Monday, Jan 18, 2021 | Jamadi Al Thani 5, 1442
Committee approves law banning raising charges
Kuwait:
The National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee yesterday cleared
a draft law banning the government from raising charges on public services
without the prior approval of the Assembly. The bill now goes to the financial
and economic affairs committee to review it and send a report to the Assembly
for debate and approval.
The bill stipulates to amend a 1995 law that bans the government from raising
charges on public services without the Assembly’s approval, but allows the
government to raise the prices of petroleum products. The amendment says any
increase in charges or prices must be approved by the Assembly first. A large
number of lawmakers have vowed to prevent the government from imposing new taxes
on citizens amid fears the government is planning to impose taxes and new
charges in the wake of a sharp drop in oil revenues.
The committee also approved a number of draft laws calling to amend the
electoral law, with some of the amendments calling to return to the 2012 law in
which voters were allowed to elect up to four candidates. Committee rapporteur
MP Mohannad Al-Sayer said one of the proposals calls to adopt a new system where
voters vote for a list of candidates rather than one individual candidate.
Meanwhile, leading opposition lawmaker Bader Al-Dahoum yesterday sharply
criticized Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem, calling him “an employee of the
government”. He also blasted the government and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh
Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah for failing to face a grilling filed by three
opposition MPs and for allegedly “paralyzing the country”.
Dahoum said the government has submitted its resignation to HH the Amir and “we
are awaiting its acceptance”. But he warned the prime minister, if selected to
form the next Cabinet, from bringing back Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs
Anas Al-Saleh in the new line-up, strongly criticizing the minister. The
lawmaker said MPs will insist that the government cooperates to pass a number of
essential laws, especially a general pardon law, Kuwaitization of jobs, amending
the election law and others.