Shura panel holds 36 meetings to scrutinise budget and tax bills
Thirty-six meetings kept Shura's Financial and Economic Affairs Committee busy during its latest legislative session, with much of its attention fixed on the 2025–2026 state budget and a series of economic bills.
Eight of those sittings were held jointly with members of the Council of Representatives and the government, as the two chambers worked through the details of the upcoming national budget.
According to figures compiled by the Council's General Secretariat, the committee examined two decree-laws, reviewed 11 draft bills, and assessed four sets of final accounts and financial statements. Sixteen reports were completed and forwarded to the Council Bureau for inclusion in public sittings. It also issued five economic and financial opinions related to draft legislation examined by other panels, as permitted under Article 21 of the Council's internal rules.
Among the decree-laws reviewed was Decree-Law No. 19 of 2023, amending the legislation that established the Bahrain National Oil Company in 1999. The second, Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024, introduced measures for taxing multinational enterprises operating in the country. The committee's work on draft legislation included a proposed amendment to Article 1 of the 2006 law concerning the Future Generations Reserve Fund. It also reviewed Bahrain's agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong to prevent double taxation and deter tax avoidance.
Further bills addressed a revised agreement for the second stage of the Al Dur water transmission project, a draft law on taxing outward remittances from expats, and a consolidated proposal combining two versions of that same tax. Amendments to the 1987 Commercial Law were also considered, along with the proposed 2025–2026 budget law and revisions to the 1977 legislation on development bonds.
The committee also studied a draft law ratifying Bahrain's agreement with the Islamic Development Bank to fund the new 400 kV Jasra Power Station, changes to the 2016 law on standards and metrology, and the proposed Secured Transactions Law.
On matters of public finance, the committee reviewed the state's final accounts for the financial years ending December 2022 and 2023, along with implementation reports for the same period. It examined the Ministry of Finance's statements on budget transfers across government bodies. The audited financial statements of the Shura Council for 2024 were also reviewed, together with the 2023 financial report for the Unemployment Insurance Account, as approved by the Social Insurance Organisation's board.
Two legislative proposals were also on the agenda. The first, submitted by Lina Habib, Dr Jehad Al Fadhel, Dalal Jassim Al Zayed, Hala Ramzi, and Hesham Al Qassab, sought changes to the 2012 Consumer Protection Law. The second, put forward by Dr Fatima Al Kooheji, Dr Mohammed Ali, Redha Faraj, Hala Ramzi, and Ijlal Isa Bubshait, called for the removal of Article 14 from the 1987 Commercial Law.
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