More than one thousand Shops have been inspected in Various Regions of the Kingdom
Within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's efforts in anti- commercial concealment, and as a continuation of the inspection rounds program on all commercial institutions, the Ministry has carried out its first control campaign to detect those involved in violating the provisions of the anti-commercial concealment law in the gold and jewelry sector. The Ministry confirmed its intention to continue such inspection campaigns on various business activities in the coming days.
More than 1,000 gold and jewelry shops have been inspected in various regions of the Kingdom. The owners of 73 jewelry shops were summoned by the Ministry to hear their words, since there is suspicion of commercial concealment, after detecting a number of evidence and documents. This is in preparation for referring the cases to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution, and then to the Board of Grievances to issue a judgment and final verdict whether the commercial concealment is proved or not.
MCI had announced on the first of last January, the start of a comprehensive campaign on those involved in the commercial concealment. Strict procedures and concrete steps had been taken to implement all penalties issued against violators of the anti-commercial concealment law, which may reach to two years' imprisonment and a fine of a million riyal per violator and the deportation of non-Saudis from the Kingdom, as well as defaming the names of violators in local newspapers at their own expenses, in addition to other penalties including the closure and liquidation of trade activity and writing off the commercial registration, and the prevention of practicing the same business for up to five years.
MCI pointed out that the officers of law enforcement had detected more than 60 commercial violations during the inspection campaign on gold and jewelry shops, including the commercial registration and the lack of license for selling precious metals. Besides, a number of illegal labors were detected in some shops, so they were referred to the competent authorities for taking the necessary procedures against them. Therefore, legal procedures were taken, under the applied regulations in the Ministry.
MCI warns all companies, institutions and individuals, not to cooperate with the violators of the regulations in the Kingdom. Otherwise, they will be exposed to legal questioning and penalties. MCI aims to reduce the phenomenon of commercial concealment and to create a regular trading environment, free of violations, and to enable the citizens to practice business safely.
The commercial concealment is defined as the non-Saudi practicing business for his own account with the aid and empowerment of a Saudi citizen or a foreign investor, whether through using his name, license or his commercial registration or in any other way. This is considered a violation to the rules and regulations. The first article of the anti-commercial concealment stated that it is not allowed for the non-Saudi, in any cases, to exercise or invest in any commercial activity that he is not authorized to, under the foreign investment system or other laws, regulations and decrees.
Taking into consideration the implementation of this law, any person will be judged in commercial concealment if he empowers the non-Saudi of investing in any commercial activity, prohibited for him to practice, whether through using his name, his license or his commercial registration or in any other way.
Regarding the cooperation of the concerned authorities in the application of this system, Article III stated that any authority, which may issue licenses to practice any activity, should follow-up the institutions and shops to check and verify their regular situations and inform MCI about any violation regarding commercial concealment.
According to Article No. (2) of the Anti-Commercial Concealment Law, issued by the Royal Decree No. (M / 22) dated (4/5/1425 H), MCI is concerned in the implementation of the provisions of this law, including the inspection and investigation of violations, receiving reports and notifications and detecting irregularities, while the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution is concerned in the investigation and prosecution process, regarding the violation of the provisions of this law before the Board of Grievances.