KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem filed a parliamentary proposal to resolve the problem of traffic jams in Kuwait, calling to impose exorbitant fees on expats when issuing driving licenses, renewing them and registering vehicles in their names, in addition to restrictions on renewing the registration of expats’ vehicles older than 10 years.

The proposal, addressed to the speaker of the Assembly, said, “In coordination with the government’s plan to expand and develop road grids and in view of the current traffic congestions resulting from ongoing construction on various roads, I propose the following:

• Collecting KD 1,000 to issue a driving license to expats.

• Collecting an annual fee of KD 500 for renewing these licenses.

• Collecting a fee of KD 500 and multiples thereof from expats owning more than one vehicle.

• Automatically linking expats’ driving licenses to their work permits to prevent forgery and exemptions – the license validity is annulled in case of not meeting any of the issuance conditions.

• Banning the renewal of expats’ vehicle registrations if the car is more than 10 years old.”

By Meshaal Al-Enezi and A Saleh