DOHA: The Advisory Council has asked the government to take up for consideration applications for commercial registration (CR) of a company on the same day rather than making the applicant wait for 30 days.
The Advisory Council yesterday approved amendments introduced to some provisions of a law (Number 25 of 2005) that regulates CR of a company.
The draft law containing the amendments was earlier referred to the Council’s internal Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, which recommended some alterations. One of the recommendations was that the request for CR must be taken up for consideration on the day the application has been made. Other recommendations included raising fines up to QR200,000 (instead of the existing QR50,000) for violating the provisions of the law and submitting forged documents to acquire the CR.
The Advisory Council also approved a draft law that seeks to raise the ownership of foreigners in a listed company in Qatar to 49 percent of its share capital instead of 25 percent.
The Council, according to QNA, was asked by the State Cabinet to take up the above draft laws for urgent discussion.
The Council approved the draft law that contained amendments to Law Number 13 of 2000 regulating the ratio of foreigners’ ownership in a Qatari listed company.
But some members of the Council expressed reservations and said that increased stake of non-Qataris in Qatari companies would give them a major role in decision-making of those companies. “This should have been done gradually,” said Mohamed Al Sulaiti, a council member. The Speaker of the Council, H E Mohamed bin Mubarak Al Khulaifi, said that listed companies should actually be given the option not to allow foreigners to have any stake in their ownership.
Meanwhile, a key committee of the Council decided to invite experts from the Ministry of Finance to get their views on a draft law that seeks to allow tax exemption to foreigners trading in Qatari stocks on capital gains and income from dividend and interest on debt instruments.
The Financial and Economic Committee of the Advisory Council at its meeting yesterday decided to invite finance ministry experts at its next sitting, QNA reports. The Advisory Council recently referred the draft law to its above committee saying it was opposed to the idea of allowing tax exemption to foreign stock investors saying that would harm the national economy.
The draft law, seeking to allow tax exemption to non-Qatari stock investors, was initially approved by the State Cabinet.
The Peninsula
