RIYADH, 18 June 2007 — A member of the Shoura Council has called for the abolition of a SR25 fee that is required by chambers of commerce and industry in the Kingdom to authenticate a legal document, adding that the decision taken by the Ministry of Trade and Commerce last week was “unfair” and did not serve public interest.
Last week the ministry ordered a SR5 increase to the SR20 fee.
“This is a strange and unfair law,” Shoura member Abdullah Bukhari said in the council. “What are chambers of commerce doing for the public in return except issuing a monthly publication?”
Bukhari said the fee increase added insult to injury. “There shouldn’t be a fee to begin with,” he added. “I recommend that a subject in the law be included that mentions that the ministry does not have the right to issue such legislation without first consulting the Shoura Council.”
In Saudi Arabia, the chambers of commerce are more than simply business-advocacy groups: They act as quasi-governmental organizations that process documents required by law to run a business. For example, to start many types of businesses in the Kingdom requires mandatory membership to a local chamber of commerce. The fee increase essentially amounts to an increase in the cost of doing business in Saudi Arabia.
The Shoura member criticized the way the ministry handled the fee increase. “Board members of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry have not asked for this increase at (trade) fairs,” he said. “The ministry took the decision without consulting anyone.”
He also accused officials working at chambers of commerce and industry in the country for paying extravagant wages to their employees and not doing enough to promote community relations. “The treasuries of chambers of commerce and industry are full of money,” he said. “They pay extravagant wages to their employees, sometimes up to SR50,000 and do nothing but pay for reception parties for their foreign guests and dole out paid vacations to their members.”
Another Shoura member, Abdullah Abdul Ghaffar, defended the decision by saying that the chambers are self-sufficient and no longer receive government money for their operations. “The fees collected from authentications are not enough to support their public activities,” he said. He called both the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and the Ministry of Finance to discuss the possibility of providing government funding to the chambers when the next budget is addressed by the Council of Ministers.
Shoura member Abdullah Dahlan called for the revocation of a law that bans chambers from using chamber money to invest in securities.
