A law passed yesterday empowers the Minister of Economy and Commerce to accept or reject a request for commercial registration (CR) of a business and his decision is to be final and cannot be challenged in a court of law.

The previous law that has been amended gave the applicant the right to move the court if the economy minister rejected his request for Commercial Registration (licensing) of a business.

The department responsible for commercial registration of a business (now named administrative unit, which was earlier known as commercial affairs department) of the ministry has to reply to an application for CR the same day.

The department must also cite the reason if an application for CR is being rejected. The economy minister can be approached within 30 days with a plea to review the decision.

However, if he rejects the plea no appeal can be filed either before him or in a court, says the new law.

The law, Number 20 of 2014, was issued by the Emir, H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, amending some provisions of Law No 25 of 2005 regulating commercial registration (CR), QNA reported.

The validity of a CR will be for a year under the new law. It must be renewed within 30 days after expiry and the renewal will also be only for a year.

Under the previous law a CR could be issued or renewed for one year or five years.

A company must inform the department if a head or heads roll in its board of directors or if it is dissolved.

The present law which has come into force right after being issued and is to be published in the official gazette has done away with a month’s jail term for not using the registered name of a business on sign boards and letter heads and other official documents.

It has rather increased the maximum fine that was QR10,000 earlier, to QR50,000.

The previous law specified a month’s prison term or a fine of QR10,000 or both for the above violation.

And a CR holder misusing it or allowing its misuse by others will be liable to a jail term of up to six months or a fine of up to QR200,000.

The previous law specified a jail term of a maximum of six months and a fine of up to only QR50,000 for the above breach.

The court will have the right to suspend a CR for up to a year if forged documents are furnished to obtain it, or for tampering with a CR, says the law.

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