Car Loan - Can't cross the Border

DOHA: In a major move, expatriates have been barred from driving private cars out of Qatar and they could cross the country’s borders only if they prove that loans taken to buy vehicles have been fully repaid.

So, expatriate motorists need to produce loan clearance certificates from a bank or a financial services company to be able to cross the border through Abu Samra land customs check point.

The Department of Traffic at the Ministry of Interior has issued a circular to the land customs authorities at Abu Samra asking them not to allow any expatriate to leave the country in a private car unless he or she produces a loan clearance certificate.

The certificate must say that loan taken for the car being driven out of Qatar has been fully repaid.

A large number of expatriates who were travelling overseas through Abu Samra customs check point on Thursday were sent back by the customs authorities due to the new directives of the Traffic Department, Al Sharq reported yesterday.

The daily said that within hours after the diktat of the traffic authorities was issued a number of expatriates, some of them travelling with their families, had to return from the customs check point disappointed.

Expatriates from countries like Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, among others, will be hit hard by the decision since they mostly travel to their home countries in their cars.

Non-Arab expatriates traveling in their cars to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage or those going to the UAE, Bahrain or Oman by road will also be affected.

It is understood that the move by the traffic authorities is aimed at making sure that expatriates who take car loans do not leave the country for good with the vehicles (bought through such loans) unless they have fully repaid the loan.

Source: The Peninsula