Khaberni - The Tourist Car Rental Association has sent a letter of grievance and appeal to Prime Minister Dr. Jafar Hassan, protesting against the draft licensing system of the rental service for the year 2026.
The head of the association, Marwan Akouba, in his letter, requested the competent authorities to halt the approval of the draft licensing system for the year 2026, issued under the provisions of Article 27/G of the Passenger Transport Act No. 19 of 2017, due to the damage it would cause to the sector workers.
The association appealed to Hassan, in his capacity as head of the executive authority, asserting that the proposed new system contradicts the government's relentless pursuit to enforce the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II particularly concerning the economic reform.
The association explained the reasons for the conflict as follows:
1- This system was enacted by the competent authorities without consulting the representative association of the sector's owners, in a situation where the real information about the state of this sector is absent, which suffers under severe financial conditions due to the political and economic consequences occurring in the Kingdom, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, the regional war, and foreign wars, all contributing to the decline in the kingdom’s tourism income.
2- The competent authorities ignored the association, and those it represents, totaling about 208 tourist car rental offices, when issuing the system for unjustified reasons in a process that strays far from legality and deviates from the path of reform and development, harming the sector and causing it losses if implemented.
3- The association insists on the reasons issued by the Prime Minister in the session held on 2026/2/1, during which he requested to be provided with the amendments and the justifying reasons for them; however, these incoming amendments hinder the economic wheel, and exhaust the sector and its workers, contrary to the vision and directives of the president, which were based on a noble governmental objective represented by improving services, lowering the market entry barrier, and keeping up with developments and updates.
4- The regulation for the year 2002 was amended in 2009, and since then to this day, 26 new companies have been registered in the sector.
Akouba stated that since the 2009 system was stringent in terms of lacking any incentive to encourage investment, only 6 of these companies are still operating, wondering what will happen with the upcoming system for 2026 which increases the burdens on companies currently operating, rather than alleviating them.
5- This sector is an integral part of other sectors and cannot be separated from them, as it contributes to driving the economic wheel in the kingdom, supporting approximately two thousand people directly, and 15,000 people indirectly.
The association confirmed that the tourist car rental offices sector does not enjoy recognition despite its name, and the Ministry of Tourism does not acknowledge it, despite its name first, and the nature of the supportive services it provides to the tourism sector second.
The association said that the sector had approached the Ministry of Transport and the Land Transport Regulatory Authority, especially since this sector was mentioned and classified in Article (2/1/3) of the Passenger Transport Law No. 19 of 2017, but they did not recognize this sector, unlike the Ministry of Tourism, and the sector did not obtain any support and / or advantage and / or exemption and / or encouragement either from the aforementioned entities or any other entity, unlike other transport sectors which include, for example, but not limited to, the public sector and bus sector and applications.
The association noted that the system it objects to is issued pursuant to the provisions of Article 27/G of the Passenger Transport Law No. 19 of 2017, and what’s even sadder is that the Ministry of Transport and the Land Transport Regulatory Authority were addressed, asking them who are we? to which they replied on 14 / 10 / 2025, by the Land Transport Regulatory Authority, which referred to Article 3 of the Transport Law "which classified us and placed us under the umbrella of the Ministry of Transport and the Authority, to our surprise, and with the same reply, they requested from the Amman Chamber of Commerce support with related entities for investment enhancement purposes in this sector".
The association also confirmed that this sector lacks support and follow-up from the partner ministries represented by the Ministries of Tourism and Transport, as it suffers from a scarcity of privileges granted to it like its peers, and it has never received support from any official entity agency, even the fund established for support, grants, borrowing, development, and investment purposes, established under Article 11 of the Passenger Transport Regulation Law, had never benefited from it nor included it, and this without any legitimate reason and/ or justified explanation, and without any solid legal justification, and suddenly a amended system appears that further burdens the sector, and the workers therein further as they are already harmed based on what was mentioned above.
The association justified its objection to the draft system, as it is marred by legal and administrative flaws, as follows:
1- The project of the system violates the law under which it was issued and exceeds its limits
2- Deviation of power and its misuse during the system’s preparation.
3- The lack of realistic and legal justifications for imposing such provisions, conditions, and fees, and increasing them.
The association said that the system project does not align with the regulatory objective, and practically leads to the exclusion of a category from the sector, knowing that it is saturated in terms of the number of offices and thus will increase the unemployment rate.
It added that the new system project is unfair to the sector and the workers therein, and imposes financial and foundational obligations on them that were not anticipated, as the companies that were established based on the old system, which are estimated to be 208 offices, and which equal the number of their tourism vehicles estimated to be 12,000 vehicles, which in turn support approximately 2,000 people directly and 15,000 people indirectly, have continued to operate after the issuance of the 2009 system based on the presence of a clear and explicit article that organizes the transitional operation and the legal adjustments and preserves the legal positions under the instructions issued to maintain their old status.
The association explained that therefore these offices still have their registered capital at (100) thousand dinars, and hence, raising the capital to (500) thousand dinars will cause them the most severe harm in light of the economic crisis affecting the sector members especially since the (500) thousand dinars capital does not equate the value of some offices' assets, nor has the good execution guarantee value, the imposed fees, and others been adjusted or changed or included in the regulatory adjustments
Also, the restrictions imposed by the system project, in terms of the condition of the number of vehicles registered in the name of the office estimated at 15 vehicles, also came unfairly; knowing that the 2009 system had addressed the differences between the companies and the offices established before its approval, as the old system required the registration of 10 vehicles in the name of the company, whereas the 2006 system did not address them, which threatens this category with exiting the market, and increases the dominance of financing companies and banks and their control over the sector, despite the fact that a large segment of them is deprived of financing and credit facilities in light of the economic crisis and Kreif financial system.
The association indicated that studies and data it owns prove that companies and offices that were established old and until 2009 amounted to 208 companies and offices, and that from 2009 to the present day 26 companies and offices were registered, however, due to the injustice of the 2009 system and its credit and financial danger and the difficulty of its stability in the market, only 6 offices remain out of them, which confirms the presence
