The People's Assembly approves a bill allowing small and medium passenger cars to transport passengers according to the electronic application system

Damascus-Sana

The People's Assembly, in its session held today headed by Hammouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the Council, approved the draft law that includes permitting small “tourist” and medium “microbus” passenger cars with no more than ten passengers except for the driver and registered in the special category for passenger transport according to the electronic application system for passenger transport and became law .

At the beginning of the session, the Council commemorated the Mediterranean Day, which coincided with the day before yesterday, coinciding with the celebrations of the member states of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean on this occasion. Especially sister and friend, with the aim of activating the role of parliamentary diplomacy in joint action.

Sabbagh stressed the importance of enhancing the values ​​of cooperation and mutual respect for the sovereignty and independence of the member states of the Parliamentary Assembly, and activating joint parliamentary cooperation in a way that would bring good and prosperity to the peoples of the region, calling on the member parliaments of the Assembly to make more efforts to stop the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria, which caused great harm to the Syrian people.

As for the draft law, it is required to allow the transportation of passengers according to the electronic application system to obtain a license from the Ministry of Transport after the approval of the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority, while anyone who violates the provisions of the electronic application system for transporting passengers will be subjected to penalties ranging from temporary or final suspension of the license in addition to the penalties. Stipulated in the Telecommunications Law.

According to the aforementioned articles, the provisions of the Traffic and Vehicles Law in force and its amendments shall be applied to all that is not stipulated in the system for the use of electronic applications for transporting passengers, which is issued by a decision of the Council of Ministers, while the Minister of Transport issues executive instructions for this law.

The electronic application for passenger transportation is defined according to the project materials as a program that works on the Internet via smart phones and computer devices and is designed to perform specific tasks and functions related to the transportation of passengers.

For his part, the Minister of Transport, Eng. Zuhair Khuzaim, confirmed that the draft law was prepared due to the spread of the phenomenon of transporting passengers by private vehicles, in violation of the laws and regulations, and it aims to find a solution to the problem of transporting passengers without an increase in the number of vehicles with the relative reduction of fuel consumption through the use of private vehicles In transporting more than one person and providing special transportation services to them.

Minister Khuzayem indicated that the draft law establishes the appropriate legal framework to regulate passenger transport service and guarantees tax dues as a result of companies that will be licensed under the law using the infrastructure of roads, information network and means of communication, indicating that the project also contributes to securing income for the owners of the vehicles covered by this law.

The Council also referred the new draft law on real estate sales tax to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee for discussion and preparation of the necessary report on it.

The session, which was attended by the Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs, Eng. Maloul Al-Hussein, rose to 12:00 pm tomorrow, Wednesday.

 Wasim Al-Adawi and Firas Safi