By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Finance Minister Barrak Al-Sheetan comfortably survived a no-confidence motion yesterday despite a concerted campaign to unseat the minister, who has only been in office for the past few months and has already faced two grillings. Thirty-two MPs renewed their confidence in the minister, while 12 voted against him with three abstentions. Only elected MPs who are not Cabinet members are allowed to vote on no-confidence motions.

Sheetan promised after the vote that the income of Kuwaiti citizens will not be touched as long as he is finance minister. But immediately after the vote, MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari filed to grill HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah for alleged plans to tax citizens in the face of a deepening budget deficit and for allegedly mishandling the battle against the coronavirus.

Kandari said the government had in fact taken a decision a few months ago to initiate studies to raise charges on public services and the prime minister is directly responsible for such decisions and not the finance minister, and thus the premier should be held accountable. He said he believes that the government has failed to deal adequately with the coronavirus crisis despite solid popular backing and should be questioned for this.

Three other MPs also filed two grillings to question Education Minister Saud Al-Harbi for failure to run the ministry and employ bedoon (stateless) teachers. The grillings were filed by MPs Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei, Khaled Abul and Awdah Al-Awdah. With barely three to four weeks left for the current term of the Assembly and as most of the sessions will be used to debate the budgets and final accounts, it remains doubtful if the grillings can be debated.

During the debate before the no-confidence vote, the griller MP Riyadh Al-Adasani said the "document" initiated by the minister to raise non-oil revenues is the most dangerous document ever and those who claim it does not exist are trying to cover up for the minister. He said Kuwait's ratings have been lowered twice during Sheetan's short tenure and if this happened in any other Gulf state, he would have been sacked.

MP Adel Al-Dhamkhi defended the minister, saying Sheetan is known for his "clean hands" and that cases against suspected corruption have been initiated only when he was appointed to the post. He said the document only includes a number of ideas and that the minister has repeatedly pledged to protect citizens' incomes.

He claimed that the minister has been a target by the "deep state" which has controlled the country and covered up for criminals, adding that "we are with the people and the minister is against the deep state". Damkhi said value-added tax cannot be implemented without the approval of the National Assembly or an emergency decree by HH the Amir, and called on MPs to act as real statesmen by backing necessary reforms without undermining the pockets of citizens.

MP Mubarak Al-Hajraf charged the minister of being the driving force behind the economic document which "will destroy the peoples' income", adding that the document is on track for implementation and the situation is grave. Hajraf said as the Assembly has rejected the no-confidence motion against the minister, it means it has approved the government's document. MP Mohammad Hayef said the "economic document consists of proposals and the minister has pledged not to touch the pockets of citizens, and if he does not fulfill his promises, we will grill the prime minister".