Companies in UAE cannot retain Emirates ID cards of employees- Emirates Identity Authority

Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) has clarified that companies cannot withhold ID Cards of their employees.
According to a report in ‘Al Khaleej’, companies are not authorised to retain ID Cards of their staff. However, they can record information of the individuals from their cards.

Eida further clarified that firms can hold ID Cards of staff members only if the court has ruled so.Similarly, the act of handing over one’s ID Card to another is illegal, stressed Eida, except in cases when the courts order for a handover.

Meanwhile, the Authority has urged all UAE residents to carry their ID Cards with them at all times. As per law, residents are required to submit ID Cards whenever asked, the report added.

The ID Card contains a unified code number and readable data stored on an electronic chip, which is in accordance with the Regulations of the Legislative Decree of the establishment of Eida No(2) of 2004.The card also contains private details of the holder, which act as security features.

Expatriates in the UAE will not be exempt from criminal charges for bouncing cheques

Expatriates in the UAE will not be exempt from criminal charges for bouncing cheques, authorities said, clarifying media reports that foreign nationals who write bad cheques will no longer be punished.

The Higher Committee for Debt Settlement Fund for Nationals said it will only settle bad debts for Emirati citizens and not foreigners living in the Gulf state.

“The mechanisms set by the fund will apply only to UAE citizens, and not others, and this includes the President’s directives to decriminalise [bounced] security cheques presented by UAE citizens to banks and financial firms,” a statement on state news agency WAM said.

“The prosecution shall suspend all criminal cases and the courts shall dismiss all cases in connection with security cheques presented by Emiratis,” it added.

The statement comes days after local media printed contradictory reports on whether the UAE was ending prison terms for expatriates that write bad cheques.
Arabic daily Al Ittihad on January 1 said bouncing a cheque would no longer be a criminal offence for expatriates, quoting Ali Khalfan Al Dhaheri, head of the legal affairs department at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs,
“In line with the directives of Sheikh Khalifa... and in the spirit of fairness and equality, the courts have stopped as of last month accepting collateral cheques presented as a criminal tool against expatriate debt defaulters,” he told the newspaper.
“Federal public prosecutions in the country have, indeed, released expatriate detainees as has been the case of their Emirati counterparts who were freed last October,” added Judge Jassem Saif Buossaiba, head of the judicial inspection department at the Justice Ministry.
Gulf News however denied the report. “There is no relaxation or debt waiver for expatriates,” deputy minister of Presidential Affairs Ahmad Jumaa Al Zaabi told the newspaper.
Cheques are used in the UAE to underwrite credit cards, loans and guarantee future payments and bouncing cheques is a criminal offence and not a civil one.
Authorities in October relaxed the penalties for Emiratis who write bad cheques and in November freed around 290 UAE nationals who were in prison for bouncing cheques.
UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in May allocated around AED5m to settle defaulted loans for each indebted Emirati. In August, the Central Bank ordered banks to extend maturities on personal loans held by Emiratis by more than four years.

UAE Central Bank caps mortgages at 50% of property value for expatsand 70% for Emiratis

In a move apparently aimed at eliminating speculators from the real estate market, the UAE’s Central Bank has decided to direct banks in the country to cap mortgage lending for expatriates at 50 per cent of the property’s value.
According to banking and real estate sources, mortgages for expatriates are being limited to 50 per cent of the property’s value for their first property, and 40 per cent for the second unit.
For UAE nationals, the rate will be slashed to 70 per cent for the first property and 60 per cent for the second unit.
A number of banks that  they were yet to analyse the circular from the UAE Central Bank and were therefore not in a position to comment on the move.
It said the new rules would be enforced at the start of 2013, adding that the Central Bank gave no reason for the decision.
Nevertheless, the Central Bank has been locked in a drive to bolster the country’s financial sector following the 2008 global fiscal distress and regional debt default crises that jolted many local banks.
In May 2011, the Central Bank enforced new rules on retail lending, capping personal loans at 20 times a borrower’s monthly salary and stipulating that the loan must be repaid within 48 months.
Those regulations covered all retail loans including personal, auto, housing loans and credit credits, and were aimed at controlling lending activity and excessive charges by banks following public complaints about a surge in bank fees.
According to Central Bank statistics, however, mortgage lending has not seen a major spike in recent months. The latest available data for August 2012 shows that real estate loans issued by UAE banks stood at Dh162.6 billion, marginally lower than the Dh163.2 billion registered at the end of 2010.
This means that, in effect, mortgages have stagnated at this level for 18 months. The Central Bank’s move, in such a scenario, is being looked at as a proactive one rather than a reactive one, aimed at ensuring that the country’s banks’ non-performing loans do not see a repeat of the spike that they saw after the 2008/09 global economic slowdown.
Banks in the country have seen specific provisions for NPLs surge by over 47 per cent since the end of 2010 – from Dh44.3bn at the end of December 2010 to Dh65.3 in October 2012.
Before this directive was issued, there was no official cap on the percentage of mortgage lending and each bank was free to decide the loan-to-value ratio that they offered.
Under the new guidelines, however, UAE nationals seeking mortgages must pay 30 per cent of the property value as a first instalment for the first unit and 40 per cent for the other units, ‘Emarat Al Youm’ daily said, citing the Central Bank circular to banks.
The new rules are expected to directly impact speculators, who might be targeting a resurgent property market in the UAE in general and Dubai in particular.
These new rules will make ‘flipping’ of properties much more difficult and ensure that a property bubble is not created.
The report said the new rules stipulated that banks would pay a maximum 70 per cent for the first property and 60 per cent for the remaining units for each Emirati customer.
“This means that banks must pay a maximum 60 per cent of the property value for expatriates receiving a mortgage loan,” the report said.
The new rules come amidst a steady recovery in the real estate sector in the second largest Arab economy, with the shares of most property firms rising in 2012.
The UAE has said it is considering joining Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, in enacting a mortgage law to regulate the real estate sector, which was severely jolted in the wake of the 2008 global fiscal distress.

No criminal case for bounced security cheques in UAE courts -Ruling covers expats and Emiratis

UAE courts have stopped accepting cheques submitted by banks as a criminal tool against debt defaulters in line with new instructions by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the semi-official daily Alittihad reported on Monday.

The instructions had first benefited Emirati defaulters before courts were told last month to apply the same rule on expatriate debtors, the paper said.

Quoting Jassim Bu Aseeba, Director of the Judicial Inspection Division at the Ministry of Justice, the Arabic language paper said banks have been told that federal courts would no longer accept cheques presented to them by expatriates against a loan.

“All federal courts in the UAE have started to enforce the presidential instructions to stop accepting cheques presented by banks as criminal tools against expatriates as is the case with Emirati defaulters,” Bu Aseeba said.

“For this reason, the public prosecutor has released all those jailed because of those cheques. Many Emiratis were already released in October.”

The paper quoted another official as saying federal courts have stopped accepting all cheques presented to them by banks and all other financial firms.

“These cheques are no longer sufficient to put a defaulter in prison. They are not a criminal tool any more,” said Ali Khalfan Al Dahiri, director of the legal affairs department at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.

“The decision is in line with the President’s directives to achieve justice for all residents including Emiratis and expatriates. The decision was enforced last month and all federal courts now enforce the same rule on both Emiratis and expatriates. There is no discrimination in the enforcement of these rules,” he added.

The paper also quoted banking officials as confirming cheques are no longer considered as a criminal tool but that they can be used by banks to prove they are owed money by debtors.

“Banks are still presenting cheques given to them by debtors only as documents proving their rights, including the loan and interest,” one source said. “But these cheques are no longer enough to arrest defaulters and convict them.”

Legal adviser Dr Mustafa El-Sherbini said that this does not mean the rights of the creditor are compromised, but it entitles the creditor to go to the civil court to claim dues.

Banking sources told the paper that banks have also stopped using security cheques as a criminal tool, but continued to request they be submitted as part of documentation for loans.

The report quoted sources as saying that this ruling only covers security cheques and that cheques submitted towards monthly, quarterly and other fixed-term payments can be used to file a criminal case if they are not honoured.

No further grace periods for Residency visa violators in UAE - prosecuted from February 4

 Abu Dhabi: People with expired residency visas will be fined and prosecuted from February 4, a statement by the Ministry of Interior said, adding that no further grace periods or exceptions will be made.

Brigadier Saeed Rakan Al Rashidi, Acting Director General of Naturalisation, Residency and Ports Affairs, said that the ministry is currently dealing with residency violators to ease procedures for their voluntary departure from the country during the amnesty.

Al Rashidi ensured that services are available to allow violators to benefit from the grace period by visiting residency departments across the UAE to obtain outpasses and leave the country without penalties.

The official also urged violators not to wait until amnesty’s final day to submit their papers.In a previous statement, Major General Nasser Awadi Al Menhali, Assistant Undersecretary for Naturalisation, Residency and Ports Affairs, said that amnesty, approved by the Cabinet in April, covers only those who overstayed their visit or resident visas, but not infiltrators, who he said will be treated like criminals.

Earlier, Al Menhali added that residents who overstayed their visas can come forward with their passports and air tickets to obtain an outpass, get their fines waived, and leave the country.Passports withheld by residency department in absconding cases will also be handed over to their holders, he said.