The Kuwaiti National Assembly (Parliament) approved a set of laws to mitigate the repercussions of the Coronavirus crisis that included various productive sectors in Kuwait, after the government of Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah took its oath of office.
The Parliament approved a law to support small and medium enterprises, allowing them to obtain financing of up to 250,000 dinars ($828,000), of which the government guarantees 80 percent. The new law allows granting private financing, up to a maximum of 250,000 dinars, to clients benefiting from it, and the local bank determines the value of the financing to cover the shortfall in cash flows for contractual periodic obligations. The law obliges the beneficiaries to preserve their national workforce, and prohibits them from using financing for speculative purposes or trading in real estate or securities or in paying installments, or burdening credit facilities based on the customer, or any other uses other than what is stipulated by law.
It also passed a bill on postponing loan installments, addressing the effects of the spread of the epidemic, and mitigating its accompanying repercussions in conjunction with low oil prices. The project guarantees benefit from the postponement of the financial obligations owed to citizens for a period of 6 months from the date of the law's entry into force, provided that the concerned authorities determine the controls and conditions necessary for its implementation. The bill also includes postponing the payment of consumer loan installments for the benefit of local banks, investment companies and financing companies subject to the supervision of the Central Bank.
Source (London-based Al-Arab Newspaper, Edited)
