Shura Council Rejects One-Time Property Fee Waiver Again

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

The Shura Council voted on Sunday to reject, again, a proposed one-time waiver of real estate registration fees for citizens buying or transferring a home for housing purposes.

Members took the decision after debating Parliament’s renewed request to amend Article (59) of the Property Registration Law (Law No. 13 of 2013), following a report from the Public Utilities and Environment Committee. The chamber backed the committee’s recommendation to stand by its earlier refusal to approve the draft law in principle.

Rapporteur Ali Al Shihabi told the sitting that the outcome sought by the draft was already achieved under the law as it stands. ‘The exemption intended to be achieved is already realised through the provisions currently in force,’ he said.

He pointed to Article (59) itself, which already exempts citizens from registration fees when they buy housing units or a residential plot through a loan from Eskan Bank. He also referred to a fixed fee of five dinars for certain entries in the property register, including gifts between spouses and relatives up to the fourth degree, and gifts where the value of the transferred property does not exceed 50,000 dinars.

Al Shihabi also argued that fees are tied to a service provided by the state. Citing constitutional court reasoning, he said a fee is a sum collected by the state in return for a defined service, adding: ‘Whoever obtains the service of registering a property must pay the State for that service, and exemption is only an exception.’

He said the committee did not see grounds to widen that exception in the way Parliament sought. ‘We did not find what calls for expanding the exception,’ he told members, warning that a wider waiver could allow people to benefit ‘without right’ and without meeting the intended aim.

The committee’s report also referred to the impact on non-oil income. Al Shihabi said the exemption would affect non-oil revenues, at a time when the state is seeking to raise such income. He told the chamber that the waiver would ‘by its nature affect non-oil revenues’.

The committee said it had not identified practical problems in applying the current registration fee system since the law was issued. It noted that the fee for registering a sale contract is 2 per cent of the property’s value, with a 15 per cent reduction of that fee if registration is completed within 60 days of the sale.

Government had earlier asked for the proposal to be reconsidered in an opinion memorandum attached to the draft law, warning it would reduce public treasury income and should be agreed in advance with the executive because it lowers state revenue. The Survey and Land Registration Bureau supported that view in its reply during the legislative process and said the draft’s stated aim was already met in practice.

The committee cited Article (84) of the Constitution, which governs the process when Parliament insists on its position and returns a draft to the Shura Council for reconsideration. On Sunday, the Shura Council again declined to approve the amendment in principle.