SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016 RAMADAN 4, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait ranks Russia challenges Euro 2016 match Ramadan TImings 51 out of 163 Airbus and Boeing schedule included Emsak: 03:03 in Peace Index with new jet MC-21 in this issue Fajer: 03:13 Shrooq: 04:48 Dohr: 11:47 Asr: 15:21 Maghreb: 18:47 6 21 Eshaa: 20:18 Expats, employers worried Min 30º Max 46º over Saudi tax proposal High Tide 03:27 & 13:55 Low Tide Reform plan proposes income tax on expats 08:42 & 21:35 40 PAGES NO: 16899 150 FILS JEDDAH: Expatriates in Saudi Arabia and their Saudi Ramadan Kareem employers alike voiced unease about a proposal the government is studying to impose income tax on for- How to receive eign workers to make up for falling oil revenues. Around a third of the 30 million inhabitants of the world’s top the Holy Month oil exporter are foreigners, many of them drawn, despite ultra-conservative social restrictions, by the By Hassan T Bwambale absence of tax and the lure of salaries higher than they could secure at home. he auspicious month of Ramadan has arrived. A National Transformation Plan of economic reforms, People invest in this occasion in different ways released on Monday, said 150 million riyals ($40 million) Tand with different actions and activities. Some had been set aside for preparing and implementing tax people make this an occasion for laziness, idleness, on expats, but Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf said no sleep and neglecting acts that would accrue abundant decision had yet been taken. Still, the news that such a rewards. They may swap the day for the night by sleep- ing during the day and staying awake at night eating, proposal was being formally studied by the govern- drinking and watching TV. Others find it as a good ment was enough to alarm some foreign workers. “If opportunity to socialize, shop, relax or travel. they impose the income tax on expats and do not offer But if you intend to maximize your time in Ramadan any benefits in return, such as house ownership and the in order to amass abundant rewards, I suggest that you right to own assets under my name, then I would pack plan your Ramadan days and nights meticulously and up and leave,” said Ammr Baghdane, an American man- invest your time wisely in doing whatever will bring ager at a retail group. you closer to Allah. Avoid squandering your time and No further details have been released on what such a opportunities during and after Ramadan. You never tax might entail for residents-a category that includes know when Almighty God will cause you to die. all non-Saudi citizens. Among the unanswered ques- On the other hand, some people know very well tions: whether it would cover all income levels and all their purpose of life and invest in every opportunity professions, or how long it would take to introduce. “I that comes their way to get closer to Allah Almighty. To guess it depends on the rate they’re talking about. If it’s them, Ramadan is a golden opportunity on a silver five percent it would annoy me but wouldn’t make me platter. Such people receive this blessed month of leave my career here and resign. If it was 20 percent Ramadan happily and enthusiastically as they believe then I wouldn’t stay, that’s for sure,” said a British banker that it is an opportunity to attain forgiveness for their in Riyadh. Like some of the others who spoke to sins and make a new start. Reuters, the banker asked not to be identified, as his Continued on Page 13 JEDDAH: A man works at a construction site in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. — AP Continued on Page 13 MPs pass ‘public tenders law’ By B Izzak Ministers to issue the necessary decisions to form such committees and will deter- News KUWAIT: The National Assembly yester- mine the mechanism of their operations. in brief day unanimously passed in the first read- Other amendments to the law obliges the ing the new public tenders law after its Central Tenders Committee (CTC), which Financial Affairs Committee introduced a awards state projects worth tens of bil- Bomb hoax forces EgyptAir number of key amendments to the lions of dinars, to accept the decision of plane to land in Uzbekistan important bill. Under the law, technical the petitions committee whose opinions CAIRO: An EgyptAir flight from Cairo to Beijing made an committees must be formed for the pur- currently are consultative. MPs debated emergency landing in Uzbekistan yesterday after a chase of arms at the army, police and whether the petitions committee, which bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the airline national guards, an addition proposed by study challenges by contractors who lose said. Uzbek authorities checked the Airbus A330 and the Audit Bureau to regulate the pur- tenders, should be under the Council of found no explosives on board, EgyptAir Chairman chase of arms and military equipment. Ministers or remain with the CTC. Safwat Musallam said. “The authorities there cleared the The provision entrusts the Council of Continued on Page 13 plane for departure after they searched the plane and found no threats,” he said. Musallam said an anonymous call was received warning there was a bomb on board after flight MS955 had left Cairo, and it landed at the nearest airport. Uzbek authorities confirmed the plane had made an emergency landing at an airport in Urgench in the west of the country. ALEPPO: A man sits on the rubble of a destroyed building following reported air strikes by government forces in the rebel-held Shaar neighborhood of the Former US astronaut northern city Aleppo yesterday. — AFP charged with murder BIRMINGHAM: Astronaut James Halsell Jr seemed the very definition of someone with the right stuff. An Air IS losing territories Force Academy graduate and decorated test pilot, he commanded or piloted five space shuttle missions. ALEPPO: Syrian rebels reopened a vital Dudyan near the border. Government NASA even turned to him for leadership as it was pick- supply line by capturing two villages yes- bombing meanwhile outside the Al-Bayan ing up the pieces after the Columbia disaster in 2003. terday from the Islamic State group as it hospital in Aleppo’s Shaar neighborhood Now, a decade after his retirement from the space came under pressure on a range of fronts killed 10 people, according to Observatory. agency, the 59-year-old Halsell’s life has taken a shock- in Syria and Iraq. IS has controlled large An AFP photographer saw bodies wrapped ing turn: He is charged with murder after an early areas of both countries since declaring its in bloodied white bags outside the hospi- morning car wreck Monday killed two young sisters on self-styled “caliphate” in 2014 but is losing tal, while inside, the force of the blast had a lonely stretch of highway in Alabama. State police territory in the face of separate assaults. knocked supplies and parts of drywall onto said alcohol and speed may have been factors in the In Syria, pro-government forces, rebels the floor. Al-Bayan hospital said a staff crash. The Tuscaloosa News reported that court docu- and a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance are member was wounded in the strikes and ments showed troopers said they found an empty all engaged in offensives to squeeze the the building had been evacuated. package of sleeping pills and an empty wine bottle in a extremists’ supply lines, while Iraqi forces motel room where Halsell had stayed before the crash. are advancing on the IS-held city of ‘Life’ back in Marea Fallujah. The Damascus regime has also According to the Observatory, five other kept up its assaults on opposition areas, civilians-including two children-were killed Smartphone ‘terror alert’ particular in second city Aleppo, where at in attacks on the Al-Marja and Al-Maadi app launched in France least 15 civilians were killed yesterday in districts. Rescue workers known as the PARIS: A new smartphone app designed to alert users SIDON: Children look at Lebanese ‘musaharati’ Mohammed Fanas as he wakes bombing by pro-government forces that White Helmets gave a higher toll of 23 to possible terror attacks was launched by the French up observant Muslims for their overnight ‘suhur’ meal before the day’s fast yes- struck near a hospital. dead in rebel-held areas. The Observatory government yesterday, amid growing security concerns terday, during the holy month of Ramadan in the old city of the southern port of North of the city, rebel fighters re- later reported seven rebel fighters killed in over the Euro 2016 football tournament. The applica- Sidon. — AFP opened a key supply route linking their bombardment of Aleppo’s eastern Al- tion, which will be free to download in both French and two main bastions in Aleppo province: Sakhur neighborhood. IS forces had long English, will send users a warning “in case of a suspect- Marea and Azaz. In late May, IS captured coveted Marea and battered the town for ed attack,” said the Interior Ministry, which has piloted Niqab ban to take effect several villages between the two towns, over a year with deadly car bombs and sui- and introduced the service. It will also alert users-who cutting off access to the Turkish border for cide attacks. Its advance last month forced must agree to be geolocated-about “unexpected July in Ticino Switzerland Marea’s opposition forces. But yesterday, thousands to flee Marea and sparked fears events” such as the breaching of flood defenses.