KUWAIT:  In the quiet session, the Assembly agreed with an overwhelming majority to raise the oil price index in Kuwait Petroleum Corp's (KPC) budget to $35 a barrel. The Assembly also approved a troop transit treaty Kuwait signed with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), despite some objection. The approval of raising the oil price at KPC came despite a warning by head of the budgets committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad that the approval may require the government to re-prepare the budget for next fiscal year starting April 1.

Several MPs however demanded that the price of oil of KPC's budget should be raised to $50 a barrel and not $35. The government said the raise came to match the increase in oil prices in recent months. A number of lawmakers also called on the government to present a true picture of state finances and to stop providing inflated figures about the budget deficit to prevent rises in prices of commodities and services.

The Assembly comfortably approved the agreement Kuwait signed with NATO to allow easy access for the movement of troops and other cooperation. Several lawmakers protested that under the agreement, Kuwait is obliged to pay billions of dollars, but Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah denied that Kuwait is required to pay money under the accord. The minister said the agreement with NATO is very important for the security of the country and the entire region. The Assembly also approved a law to increase from KD 50 million to KD 150 million a portfolio run by the industrial bank to provide soft loans to small enterprises by young citizens.

By B Izzak