Manama: A three-month grace period offered by Qatar’s authorities to motorists to benefit from a 50 per cent reduction on traffic fines will expire on Thursday.
In January, the General Directorate of Traffic said that all violations registered before December 31 would be halved if the motorists paid them by April 7.
“The deduction is available for all types of traffic fines, including radar recorded violations, bookings by traffic policemen and vehicle impounding,” it said. “This opportunity is given to the public to correct their traffic status and settle all their fines.”
The reduction offer by the authorities was made as the number of violations on the road soared to dramatic levels.
Reports said that the number of traffic violations recorded in Qatar exceeded 1.5 million from January to November 2015.
Excessive speed and non-compliance with traffic instructions and regulations regularly topped the list of the violations.
The authorities have regularly launched campaigns to increase the driving culture in a country where foreigners make up a high percentage of the population. Qatar is also a regular destination for many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens who drive to the peninsular country.
The traffic directorate is facing issues collecting the fines, especially when the motorists are foreigners who break the rules during their stay.
In January 2013, the Qatari authorities impounded 20 Saudi-registered cars at a border checkpoint after their drivers failed to pay traffic fines that in some cases reached 190,000 Qatari riyals.
Most of the fines were recorded by radars for speeding on the highway between the Abu Samra border post and Doha, a distance of around 100km, Saudi and Qatari media reported.
Other offences by Saudi drivers included illegal parking and jumping red lights.
In one instance, a motorist was booked 408 times, according to Saudi daily Okaz.
Saudi drivers at Abu Samra said that they were shocked by the exorbitant amounts they had to pay to get their cars back, even after the Qatari authorities decided to halve the fines.
“In many cases, the car is not worth more than 30,000 Saudi riyals and the driver is asked to pay 100,000 riyals after the 50 per cent discount suggested by the Qatari authorities,” a driver was quoted as saying.
Another Saudi driver said that he was not aware of the amount he had to pay for his Qatar traffic violations.
“I was shocked when I was told by the passport officer in Qatar that there were traffic offences and that I needed to contact the directorate to pay them,” the driver who was not named said. “I was even more shocked when the traffic officer there told me that my violations amounted to 124,000 Qatari riyals and that I had to pay them if I wanted to avoid having my car impounded,” he said.
Another driver said that he drove into Qatar, where he had business interests, regularly on a weekly basis.
“I have never noticed that I had broken the traffic law,” he said. “However, when I wanted to drive into the country, I was told to pay 189,000 Qatari riyals in unpaid fines. I tried to explain that I was not aware of the violations and that I never received anything to inform me about them. They impounded my car and said that I would get it back only after paying the fines,” he said.
