Shamali, who has for years opposed all debt bailout proposals, said after a meeting with the committee that an important understanding has been reached to resolve the debt problem.
But he added that a technical and legal team will look into the details of the scheme and submit its report for another meeting on Sunday to finalize the issue before the next Assembly session on March 19.
Shamali provided no further details on the scheme but committee chairman MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah said the deal calls for the government to purchase bank loans granted between Jan 1, 2002 and March 31, 2008.
The government will then waive all interest on such loans before rescheduling their repayment in easy instalments which must not be higher than 40 percent of the debtors’ monthly income.
The two officials provided no details on whether the relief scheme will include those who have already completed repayment of their loans with the high interest.
Member of the committee MP Ahmad Lari said the cost of the settlement is around KD 900 million if it covers debtors of Islamic banks, while MP Safa Al-Hashem said at least 66,555 loans will benefit from the scheme.
Several MPs also said that the government will look favourably to a proposal to grant KD 1,000 to each Kuwaiti citizen who did not benefit from the bailout.
If approved, this will cost more than around KD 1.2 billion. But Zalzalah insisted that the KD 1,000 grant proposal was not a part of the debt relief deal.
Incidentally, the government had rejected a similar law passed by the Assembly in Jan 2010 by an overwhelming majority.
That time, the government had insisted that the law was harmful to the national economy and would encourage people to spend lavishly.
Meanwhile, the interior and defense committee yesterday postponed a decision on a draft law calling to naturalize at least 4,000 stateless people in 2013 as a means to resolve the bedoon problem.
The postponement came to allow the committee more time to study the proposal more comprehensively.
Separately, the criminal court yesterday acquitted opposition tweeter Fares Al-Balhan from the charges of insulting HH the Amir and undermining his authorities.
Balhan’s is the second acquittal after the criminal court last month acquitted five tweeters from similar charges.
The ruling is not final as it can be challenged before the court of appeals and the supreme court. Kuwaiti courts have in the past three months sentenced a number of tweeters and former opposition MPs to various terms in jail for allegedly insulting the Amir.
The appeals court is scheduled to rule today on the case of tweeter Rashed Al-Enezi who has been in jail for two months after he was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting the Amir.
