House puts discussion of automotive directive on hold pending further study: The House of Representatives’ Industry Committee has decided to postpone discussions on the automotive directive pending further study, Al Borsa reported. The hope is to come up with a bill that “would satisfy all industry stakeholders,” an MP said, adding that a contentious article that imposes a 0.5% tithe on industry profits for an industry development fund is being scrapped. The House industry committee had rejected some of the law’s clauses last month. The directive would give incentives to local assemblers to go further up the value chain into manufacturing through a series of incentives.

In other legislative news, the Industry Permits Act is only a month or two away: The Industry Committee approved 28 articles from the 45-article Industry Permits Act on Tuesday, Al Borsa reported. Committee head Ahmad Samir said that the legislation, which aims to minimize the wait time for industrial licenses to as little as 30 days, should come into effect within a month or two at most, as the cabinet and House are in agreement over its clauses.