Shura Council president issues clarification

Manama, May 13 (BNA): Shura Council President Ali bin Saleh Al-Saleh has issued a statement clarifying an expression he had said during the weekly session and which was misconstrued. Addressing the session, Shura Council member Mona Almoayyed said that “those who pay the Value Added Tax (VAT) are poor people who buy cars”. By reiterating the expression “poor who bur cars”, the Shura Council president meant that Ms. Almoayyed should have used “low-income people”. “Poor is a word internationally used by relevant institutions to define a person who does not earn a sufficient daily income to secure his needs and those of his family in terms of food, drink, clothing and others”, he said. He was referring to the Shura Council session which was convened to endorse the general state budget for the fiscal years (2019-2020). He paid tribute to all segments making up Bahraini society for their spirit of compassion, stressing the need to heed categories in need of care and attention to enhance their standard of living, being a national, religious, moral and humanitarian responsibility. He said that Shura Council member Ms. Almoayyed had apologized, admitting that she should have used “low-income” instead of “poor” people.