Saudi deports expats for SIM violations

Expats warned against violating SIM card rules

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  Arab News - Expats warned against violating SIM card rules

A committee composed of the Office of the Emir of Madinah, the police, the immigration department and the municipal mayoralty of Madinah has brought charges against expatriates who are selling prepaid phone cards with their iqama (residency permits) numbers inside grocery stores.

"The Committee arrested the expatriates for violating The Communication and Information Technology Commission's (CITC) regulation for overseeing the sale and activation of pre-paid SIM cards by selling prepaid phone cards with their residency ID numbers to the Azizia Police Station in order to complete the investigation," Colonel Fahd Amer Ghannam, the media spokesman for the Police of Madinah, told Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper.
He emphasized that the violations required deportation, even though those arrested have valid residency and work permits, because the violations pose a threat to the country and its citizens.
He called on citizens and residents in the Kingdom to cooperate and make concerted efforts with security forces to report about persons who commit such violations.
Reports published by Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper indicate that, in spite of the CITC’s restrictions, expats succeed in creating illegal ways to obtain prepaid SIM cards.
The black market in pre-paid mobile SIM cards has exploded within peddlers and recruitments companies as soon as the announcement of the new regulation even before its implementation.
The CITC has announced new regulations that state, "No pre-paid SIM cards will be charged, recharged, or balances transferred, unless the subscriber enters his or her identity number."

Real estate prices expected to drop this year

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  Reuters - The increasing real estate prices will decline in 2013.

The increasing real estate prices will decline in 2013, Ayed Al-Qahtani, head of the Real Estate Committee in the Eastern Chamber, told a local newspaper. During a symposium on real estate in Dhahran last week, Al-Qahtani said that real estate prices in some areas of the Kingdom rose during the past four years by 150 percent. The Saudi market overcame all the consequences of the global crisis of 2008. “This gave way to a great confidence in the country’s real estate market,” he said.

The Eastern Province has the highest number of real estate auctions, and the most diverse new products in the sector, despite the obstacles it is facing. “A developer must obtain a so-called Aramco document, before any new land scheme can be approved. That is the biggest obstacle for the sector,” said Al-Qahtani.
The problem of liquidating assets, which distressed real estate contributions, was resolved in 2012 through the direct supervision of the Ministry of Commerce.
“The mortgages finance regulation was approved last year, with its many passages and codes. This is considered to be a strong driver for the real estate market in the Kingdom, with the inclusion of mortgage, leasing finance, executive judiciary and assessment,” said Al-Qahtani.
He said that assessment law is the most difficult of all, and should only be applied with a clear and precise mechanism. He mentioned the US mortgage crisis that led to the collapse of the property sector. He stressed that the establishment of a commission for assessment is a good step forward to implement the law.
For 2013, Al-Qahtani predicted, “Residential units still fall short to cover the demand in the Kingdom. The market here needs more than 300 thousand units, against the 120 thousand units provided by developers annually,” he concluded.