Author: Riyadh Al-Balushi

A royal decree came out last week promulgating a brand new Higher Education Law that creates a holistic framework for governing higher education in Oman as opposed to the piecemeal approach found in the previous legal framework that governed private universities, private colleges, and scholarships separately.

The new Higher Education Law repeals the System of Private Universities of 1999, Royal Decree 42/99 regarding the Establishment of Private Colleges and Higher Institutes, and the Educational Scholarships, Grants, and Aid Law of 2002, and instead creates a unified approach for governing higher education in Oman. The new law regulates both public and private sector higher education establishments collectively and provides a general framework for higher education scholarships.

Even though this new law repeals three separate legal instruments, it is relatively short as it delegates many issues to the executive regulation, especially in regard to scholarship matters, which are now merely governed by four articles in this law.

Under the new law, a private higher education establishment is required to have its facilities ready for operation within a maximum period of 5 years and to have a board of trustees separate from its board of directors. The law prohibits the chairman of the board of directors to simultaneously hold the position of the chairman of the board of trustees of the university.

The royal decree promulgating the new Higher Education Law makes no reference to Royal Decree 67/2000, which granted certain exemptions and privileges to higher education establishments, and it is not clear if these provisions still apply or were implicitly repealed by the new law, which only makes mention of the tax exemption granted to higher education establishment for a period of five years renewable for an additional five years period.

The new Higher Education Law enters into force today. It can be read in full in English at the link below:

The Ministry of Social Development issued a new Governance Regulation for Practising the Profession of Psychological Counselling and Family Counselling. This regulation replaces the Regulation for Private Counselling and Family Counselling Centres of 2013 and expands on the licensing requirements from a simple requirement to have the counselling centre licensed to a more comprehensive licensing requirement for each individual practitioner working in a counselling centre, in addition to the existing requirement to have the centre licensed as well.

The regulation provides a detailed procedure for obtaining the licence under several conditions, the most important being for the licence applicant to be an Omani or GCC national. The regulation makes a distinction between psychological counselling and family counselling, and provides different academic degrees and work experience requirements for licence applicants. Article 25 of the regulation provides for a mechanism to allow a visiting practitioner to provide services in the centre after the approval of the ministry, but it is not clear from the regulation if this is limited to Omani and GCC nationals.

The regulation entered into force on 26 April 2022, and existing centres have 6 months to comply with the regulation.

You can read the regulation in full in English on the link below:

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion has issued this month a new Regulation for Governing Consumer Cooperatives, which allows members of a specific community to establish a cooperative company with the objective of providing and selling goods to that community. Cooperatives that satisfy the requirements of this regulation are entitled to be allocated government land through usufruct.

The new regulation mandates that the cooperative takes the form of a closed joint stock company, requires the approval of the governorate in which it intends to operate, requires that natural persons own at least 75% of the shares of the company, and sets the shareholding of each natural person in the company to a maximum of 5% of its total shares. The regulation permits one strategic partner with expertise in the coop industry to own a maximum of 25%.

The regulation requires cooperatives to obtain a licence from MOCIIP in order for them to operate, and requires MOCIIP to coordinate with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning to allocate government land to such cooperatives through usufurct.

The regulation was published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette and comes into force after three months.

You can read it in full in English on the link below:

The Authority for Public Services Regulation has issued a new Water and Treated Water Supply and Wastewater Collection and Transport Services Customers Welfare Regulation that sets the obligations of water and wastewater service providers towards their customers. The predecessor of APSR, the Electricity and Related Water Sector Authority, issued a regulation for electricity sector customers in 2020, and this regulation follows an extremely similar approach for water and wastewater sector customers.

This regulation sets the obligations of service providers in the water and wastewater sector such as the obligation to provide a service agreement in the Arabic and English languages, an obligation not to discriminate between customers, and an obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the information they collect.

The regulation also provides a detailed complaint mechanism procedure, outlines the process for service disconnection, determines billing details, and grants APSR the right to impose administrative penalties of up to 20,000 Rial Omani against service providers who violate this regulation.

You can read the regulation in full in English on the link below:

The Authority for Public Services Regulation has issued the Regulation on Accident Notification in the Water and Wastewater Sector that imposes obligations on providers of licensed water and wastewater activities to report certain types of accidents to the Civil Defence and Ambulance Authority, APSR, and the chairman of the board of the service provider.

The regulation classifies accidents into serious accidents (ones that involve death or injury), significant accidents (ones that involve certain types of service interruption), and serious incidents (incidents that are likely to result in a serious or significant accident). It also includes obligations relating to the minimum information to be included in the notification, obligations for producing preliminary and final accident reports, obligations for sharing information with other licensed service providers, obligations relating to the person responsible for the site of the accident, and obligations relating to record-keeping.

APSR has the authority to impose administrative fines against those who violate the regulation amounting up to 20,000 Rial Omani.

You can read the regulation in full in English on the link below:

The National Centre for Statistics and Information recently issued a new Executive Regulation of the Statistics and Information Law. The Statistics and Information Law was issued in 2019 replacing the Statistics Law of 2001, and this new regulation replaces the old Statistics Law Regulation of 2004.