DAMMAM — Abdul Malik Bin Sufyan, head of the anti-commercial cover-up team at the Federation of Saudi Chambers (FSC), said that the concerned authorities have noticed the commercial cover up of some commercial establishments whose assets exceed SR1 billion while their covert Saudi owner gets an income of only SR4,000. He said that the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) has set an accurate index by counting the inputs of all government agencies and FSC, and the index covers most of the commercial activities. Attending a workshop on the corrective period for violators of the Anti-Commercial Cover-up Law at the Asharqia chamber headquarters here on Wednesday, he said that the government agencies that are authorized to carry out inspection tours of commercial establishments and shops violating the law will be represented by the ministries of interior, commerce, municipal and rural affairs and housing, and other bodies. He called on the owners of small enterprises to take advantage of the corrective period that will end in February 2022. Abdul Malik said that the SDAIA index counts the financial and non-financial indices, that are prepared in coordination with the Central Bank and local banks, in addition to cooperation with government agencies specialized in combating commercial cover-up. He stressed that the first reading of the corrective period indicates that the majority of the persons involved in cover-up are the elderly people located in non-urban areas, or an uneducated employee or one who has a minor job. He said that the agencies and entities that have already corrected their status are mainly major companies that are characterized by high employment, and are committed to paying taxes and fees. With regard to cooperation with embassies that have a large community of their nationals working in the Kingdom, Abdul-Malik said that an initiative was launched, in cooperation with the embassies of the targeted nationalities, to correct the status of the establishments where they are working. The initiative with the Yemeni embassy has been completed, and special workshops are being held for the Bengali nationality. The plan also includes all the remaining nationalities, including Egyptian, Pakistani, Indian, and Jordanian nationals. He stressed that the National Program to Combat Commercial Cover-up is currently working to provide more options that are commensurate with some activities to correct the status of violators of the law.
