Lower House abolishes imprisonment for bad cheques

AMMAN — The Lower House on Tuesday, while deliberating amendments to the Penal Code, agreed to lift imprisonment penalties for issuing bad cheques. 

MPs approved amendments with the form received from the government, which grants a three-year period to reorganise the market and adapt with halting the criminalisation of bounced cheques, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The draft law justified the decision that the complete removal of protection on cheques will prevent resorting to delayed cheques and instil the use of cheques as a means of honouring debts rather than for credit, in a way that shows the real volume of sales and purchases. 

The bill also said that bad cheques is the most common financial crime in Jordanian courts and contributes to incurring the state a lot of time, effort and money during the phases of suspension, hearing sessions and imprisonment. 

Justice Minister Ahmad Ziadat said that the government embarked on preparing for lifting legal protection on cheques since 2010 through finding credit alternatives via issuing the credit information law and establishing a company under the law to collect and analyse credit information that help banks, financial leasing companies and merchants to grant credit or sell on credit after checking the credit record of clients.