In Coordination & Cooperation with the Ministries of Labor, Municipal & Rural Affairs and Telecommunication
The Ministry of Commerce & Industry is intending to implement intensive inspection tours on all telecommunication shops and their accessories in various regions of the Kingdom, so as to detect the violators of the provisions of Anti-Commercial Concealment Law, and to impose the legal and statutory penalties against the offenders, besides verifying the application of the Ministerial decree, which stipulates that the work in telecommunication activity and its accessories to be assigned for Saudi Citizens only, once the announced deadline will be over on 01.12.1437 AH, corresponding to 02.09.2016 AD.
MCI emphasizes that the offenders of the above mentioned law would be referred to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution in preparation for referring them to the Bureau of Grievances to issue the final verdicts. The Ministry has warned the shop owners and individuals of having any relation or cooperation with the offenders, so as to avoid the legal questioning and statutory penalties.
This comes within the coordination and joint cooperation with relevant authorities to implement the decision of nationalizing the telecommunication sector and its accessories, and this is part of the Ministry`s endeavors to end the phenomenon of commercial concealment, and to develop a regular trading environment, free of irregularities, as well as to enable the citizens of doing business safely.
According to the Rules & Regulations, the Ministry will implement all penalties against the violators of the said law, which may reach to two years' imprisonment, a fine up to SR one million for each violator, also deporting the non-Saudi from the Kingdom, besides making defamation on the offenders in the local newspapers at their own expense, in addition to other punishments including the closure and liquidation of the trade activity, as well as writing off the CR, with the prohibition of practicing the same business for up to five years.
It is noteworthy that the Ministries of Commerce & Industry, Labor, Municipal & Rural Affairs, Telecommunication & Information Technology have granted the telecom Shops 90 days, as from 01.06.1437 H, to achieve 50% of nationalization of telecom. Jobs, while the whole telecom sector to be fully nationalized on 01.12.1437 H.