| 17 Jul 2010 |
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Qatar: Inflation blamed on high govt fees
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DOHA: Probing the causes of price rise in the country, a well-known Qatari columnist has said part of the blame should go to the government as well since it had raised the fee slabs for its various basic services to unjustifiable levels.
Individuals and businesses were, thus, burdened and the end result was that an unwelcome trend of price rise set in, said Dr Mohamed Al Kubaisi in a hard-hitting column in Al Sharq.
Citing examples, he pointed to fees for various types of visas -- including for work and family -- as well as for commercial and municipal registration for businesses, which were hiked manifold.
The fee for visas used to be QR50, but it was suddenly raised to QR500 while the work visa fee went up to QR1,100 a few years ago.
Likewise, the fee for renewing commercial licences was raised from QR10 to between QR2,000 and QR30,000, said Al Kubaisi. Civic licences have also become quite expensive.
Similarly, citizens used to pay QR10 for a new passport but the fee was increased to QR100, and replacing a lost or damaged passport now entails a fee of QR400, up from QR10 earlier.
Al Kubaisi said the general price curve in the country took an upswing especially after 2005, when Qatar's Constitution came into force.
The major revenue earners for the government are the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Business and Trade and the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning as well as the customs and ports departments and the Supreme Judicial Council.
Giving figures, the columnist said government revenues were estimated at around QR12bn in 2004 but the figure went up to QR19bn in just two years (in 2006), and soared even further to QR23.5bn in 2008.
Taxation and the fees levied for basic state services are age-old and referred to in Qatar as 'Al Qilata', and existed even during the days of pearl diving, but the state coffers used to be almost empty then.
"This is indirect taxation and eventually leads to high inflation as it is the people to whom the added costs are passed on in the end."
Al Kubaisi also took a dig at the Ministry of Business and Trade and said its recent move ordering retailers to fix maximum prices of 156 basic food and non-food items during Ramadan was ironical, for it was the first ministry which had raised commercial registration fees.
The other ministries followed suit forgetting that the move would eventually lead to price rise and burden the common man in the end, he said.
Al Kubaisi, however, also had a word of praise for the government, and said it provided subsidies for 'khubs' flour, electricity and water for expatriates (they are free for nationals) and for some basic food items for citizens.
© The Peninsula 2010
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