MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei

KUWAIT: A call for calm made by MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei and to decelerate tension between the parliament and the government prior to opening the new parliamentary term on Oct 30 seems to have overshadowed MPs Mohammed Al-Muttair and Shuaib Al-Muwaizri's preparations to grill His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, as well as MP Riyadh Al-Adsani's preparations to grill Minister of State for Assembly Affairs Adel Al-Khorafi, said informed sources. The sources added that lawmakers who had expressed willingness to sign a motion of non-cooperation with HH the Prime Minister believe that Tabtabaei's call is justified, especially since along with his colleague Jamaan Al-Harbash, he is facing a prison sentence and a vote to annul their membership.

The sources further indicated that lawmakers believe that the call for decelerating tension will achieve an agreement with the government and have a general amnesty issued to wrap up the case of breaking into the parliament and save Tabtabaei's and Harbash's membership. "Acceleration might lead to dissolving the parliament," the sources warned, noting that in such a case, the general amnesty law would be useless because both MPs would still be banned from running in parliamentary elections.

Taxes

In view of the number of companies evading taxes, the finance ministry plans to publish these companies' names in the official gazette if the ministry's taxes sector fails to check concerned companies' addresses, quarters and representatives with the Public Authority for Civil Information's (PACI) assistance and checking Minister of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) registers before taking legal action. Informed sources said the official gazette inclusion would be made if a company or its representative refuses to receive the tax letter sent by the ministry, if the company office is closed and no representatives are available or if the company's address or contacts are not found.

Camp licenses

The Environment Public Authority (EPA) made a proposal to Kuwait Municipality to not issue camp licenses to people who had not collected their insurance deposits after last year's camping season. The proposal also called for fining those citizens on applying for a camping license this year. In this regard, informed sources said the proposal would be discussed next week in a joint meeting between EPA and the municipality.

By A Saleh