MPs call for curbs on unregulated brokerage

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Property and car brokerage are among the trades targeted in an urgent proposal from five MPs seeking new rules for Bahrain’s small-scale trading sector, saying unregulated practices are eating into citizens’ income and driving some out of the market.

The proposal, submitted by Khalid Buanaq, Mohammed Al Maarefi, Ahmed Al Salloom, Zainab AbdulAmeer and Hisham Al Awadhi, calls on the government to review its approach to small commercial activity and bring in rules for areas including property and vehicle brokerage, along with some service trades.

Buanaq said the aim was to improve government policy for the small projects market and introduce controls for such activities “in a way that strengthens citizens’ ability to compete and curbs unregulated practices in the market”.

Conditions

In their explanatory note, the MPs said small Bahraini traders were finding it harder to compete as more people moved into these lines of work without enough rules to keep conditions even or stop unlawful market conduct.

They said that had weakened citizens’ chances of staying in such trades and cut the return from work that many rely on as their main source of income.

The note says the effect has been felt most in smaller fields that do not need large sums to start, leaving part of the market out of balance and putting the future of small projects at risk.

The MPs said that ran against Bahrain’s push to support enterprise and widen citizens’ role in the economy.

They said urgent action was needed because the strain in the small projects market was already hitting the stability of household income for citizens working in those fields.