Annual road fees to be proposed for expat drivers

Expat drivers may soon have to pay annual fees for using public roads in Bahrain. MPs Jameel Kadhem Al Mahfoudh and Ghazi Al Rahma said that they were intending to submit a proposal to the Council of Representatives suggesting “imposing fees on expat vehicle owners and double the fees of their vehicles’ registration, driving learning licences and driving licences.”

In order to make this affective, the proposal stipulates amending some of the provisions mentioned in Article 23 of the existing Traffic Law.

Speaking to DT News on the sidelines of the council’s weekly meeting last Tuesday, MP Al Mahfoudh explained that the fees could be BD100 to be paid by each expat car owner in Bahrain once a year.

“This would sure be a great source of income to the State budget. These amounts would contribute in financing infrastructural and key projects in the country. It’s a better option instead of sinking in debts to implement such projects. It would lighten the financial burdens on the state budget,” Al Mahfoudh opined.

Both MPs explained that “continuing to take these financial burdens would negatively impact providing services and the development of the different fields in the Kingdom, especially with the steadily growing numbers of expats and their tendency towards owning vehicles in Bahrain.”

“The proposal aims to provide the necessary resources to achieve sustainable development in the fields of establishing, developing and maintaining public roads,” the MPs said.

They also said that “implementing the amendments to the existing law would contribute in reducing the public debt, overcome the increasing traffic congestions issue, develop public transportation, control the use of subsidised petrol, curb pollution and regulate national resources’ spending and redirect it to serve citizens.”

However, Al Mahfoudh and Al Rahma said, “GCC nationals could be excluded from paying these fees.”

“This is not new. It’s implemented in other countries in the region such as Jordan and Malaysia,” Al Mahfoudh added. 

The proposal would be presented to the concerned department in the Parliament House, in order to be displayed before the rest of the MPs for voting.