MPs yesterday unanimously backed three urgent proposals aimed at protecting incomes, stabilising small earners and easing pressure on productive businesses as the kingdom navigates exceptional regional circumstances.
The proposals target jobseekers affected by technical glitches, self-employed workers left out of April’s wage support such as fishermen and driving instructors, and companies struggling with the cost of importing essential inputs subject to value added tax (VAT).
The first urgent proposal calls for including all registered jobseekers in April’s exceptional financial support and immediately suspending decisions to cut unemployment benefits triggered by technical errors on the Labour Ministry’s electronic system.
MP Hanan Fardan, who is leading MPs in the first call, said the proposal was equally driven by fairness and urgency.
“Jobseekers are the most vulnerable group in any crisis,” she added. “Many of them lost their benefits not because of negligence, but because of technical faults that prevented them from receiving interview notifications. It is unacceptable for them to pay the price of a system malfunction at a time when the country itself recognises the need for exceptional support.”
She stressed that with the government already offering support for private-sector salaries from the Unemployment Fund it had also to ensure that those without jobs were not ‘left outside the umbrella of protection’.
The proposal also requests retroactive repayment of withheld amounts and freezing all recent ‘forfeiture of entitlement’ decisions linked to missed interviews during the period of system instability and regional tension.
The second proposal seeks to widen April’s salary support scheme from the Unemployment Fund to include affected self-employed groups whose incomes rely on daily activity. These include professional fishermen hit by seasonal fishing bans, driving instructors facing a drop in demand, taxi owners and bus drivers affected by reduced movement and transport activity.
MP Mohammed Al Olaiwi, speaking on behalf of five MPs on the second proposal, said these categories were among the hardest hit yet often overlooked.
“These professions survive on daily income,” he said. “When movement slows, their earnings stop immediately. Many of them contribute to the Unemployment Fund, particularly fishermen who pay subscriptions, and yet they find themselves outside the support framework.”
He added that past government interventions during crises had proved to be effective in protecting social stability and that activating the existing Unemployment Fund mechanism made this support both practical and fast to implement.
“This is not a new structure,” he added. “The tool already exists. What we are asking for is inclusion and fairness.”
The third urgent proposal focuses on easing pressure on businesses by expanding the deferral of VAT collection on imported goods essential for continuing industrial and agricultural production.
Services committee vice-chairman MP Abdulwahid Qarata, heading a group of MPs, said rising shipping costs, insurance premiums and supply chain uncertainty had placed national producers under severe strain. “Factories and farms depend on imported raw materials,” he outlined. “Paying VAT at the point of entry under these circumstances ties up liquidity that companies desperately need to keep operating and protect jobs,” he said.
He noted that the VAT Law and its executive regulations already allow for deferred payment for taxable importers but the proposal calls for expanding and activating this mechanism more broadly for production inputs during the crisis period.
“This is about enabling the productive sector to breathe, continue operating and safeguard national employment until stability returns to regional trade routes,” he added.
Together, MPs said the three proposals send a clear parliamentary message: protect incomes at the individual level, support vulnerable earners, and keep businesses running to preserve jobs.
They stressed that the measures were temporary, targeted and built on existing legal and administrative frameworks, allowing for swift implementation without additional bureaucratic burdens. With unanimous backing, the proposals now move forward as part of Parliament’s urgent response to the exceptional challenges facing citizens and the economy.
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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