Bill seeks remittance tax on expats in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY - MP Osama Al-Menawer has submitted a bill to impose tax on the remittances of expatriates. The bill mandates banks and financial institutions processing the remittances of expatriates to collect tax on money transferred to other countries.

The Ministry of Finance shall specify the tax amount, which will not be lower than five percent if the transferred amount exceeds 50 percent of the annual income of the expatriate worker. The annual income is calculated by including all the money deposited in the bank account of the expatriate worker within one year. The tax amount will be calculated by the end of every year and the collected tax will be added to the public treasury. Expatriates whose salaries are lower than KD350 per month are exempted from this provision.

In another development, Al- Menawer forwarded queries to Minister of State for Municipality and Housing Affairs and Urban Development Shaya Abdulrahman Al-Shaya about the decision issued by former Minister of State for Housing Affairs Rana Al-Fares in 2020 to terminate the contracts of expatriate consultants who are above 60 years old. He asked if it is true that one of the terminated consultants has been reappointed with a salary of KD3,000 even if he is already above 70 years old. He requested for copies of the decision on re-appointing expatriate consultants who were terminated and correspondences with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in this regard; as well as the names, qualifications, experience, salaries and allowances of expatriate consultants at the Ministry of State for Housing Affairs.

In addition, MP Fayez Al- Homhour submitted a proposal to amend Kuwait Army Law number 32/1967 by replacing Article Five with the following: Entry to Kuwait Army through conscription, volunteering or recruitment is exclusive to males; and subject to the relevant laws, decisions and decrees. Furthermore, National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al- Ghanim recently received in his office Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza. They discussed regional and international issues, and ways to strengthen relations between Kuwait and Venezuela. Al-Ghanim also met Undersecretary- General of the United Nations (UN) and Commissioner- General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Philippe Lazzarini and his accompanying delegation. They talked about the humanitarian conditions of Palestinian refugees; as well as ways to alleviate the suffering of these refugees and provide them jobs.