Ammon News -

Minister of Labor, Ma'an Qatamin, said the ministry will work to list the construction contracting sector as a business battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking during a meeting on Sunday, with a delegation representing Jordan Construction Contractors Association (JCCA), headed by its President Ahmad Yacoub, Qatamin said the challenges facing the construction sector will be presented to an ad hoc committee tasked with identifying the sectors hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis, calling on the JCCA to offer studies that prove the virus-related repercussions.

During the meeting, Yacoub reviewed the key problems facing the construction sector internationally and locally due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pointing to the importance of listing this business as pandemic-battered, as it has an "active" role in stimulating Jordan's economy.

The delay in paying contractors' dues in the absence of new bids for 2021 has a major role in "weakening and collapsing" this sector, according to Yacoub.

On the feasible solutions, he called for reducing, or exempting the taxes on contractors, aimed to mitigate the damage they had suffered at this stage, and also demanded to expedite the issuance of a government circular to address the sector's woes due to the delay in implementing the contractors' projects, triggered by the long lockdown periods that ravaged the construction activities.

Delivering the minister a JCCA petition demanding tax exemptions for 2019- 2020, Yacoub said the letter also pushes accelerating the payment of government financial dues to contractors, floating construction, infrastructure projects to resume the sector's operations, and addressing banks to reduce interest rates and postpone installments.