MPs vote for imposing fees on foreign remittance
Bahrain’s lawmakers voted today in favour of imposing fees on foreign remittances.
This came as majority of MPs passed an urgent proposal submitted by MP Ahmed Al Ahmed during the council’s weekly session today.
Al Ahmed told DT News that the proposal suggests taking “tiny percentages” of around 0.5-1 percent of each remitting process done from Bahrain.
“Official statistics showed that BD2.5 billion is the amount of money transferred abroad from the Kingdom,” Al Ahmed previously informed.
He claimed that this would “assist in increasing the revenues of the State and boost incomes from non-oil industries.”
However, Al Ahmed also underlined that “this wouldn’t affect the livelihoods of expats in Bahrain.”
Additionally, the proposal recently received the council’s Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, despite the rejection of the Central Bank of Bahrain which stated, “This contradicts with the policy of the Kingdom of Bahrain which is based on free economy without administrative fees or imposing restrictions.”
The proposal will be referred to Shura Council then the Government for further discussion.
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