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AMMAN — The money paid to purchase 250,000 gas cylinders from India cannot be refunded even if the controversial shipment is proved not to comply with local standards, Deputy Motaz Abu Rumman said on Wednesday.

Abu Rumman, rapporteur of the Lower House Integrity and Transparency Committee, was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying that the Indian manufacturer claims that the gas cylinders meet local technical standards, which means that “JD5 million will be lost if we end up destroying the shipment.”

The deputy said the committee is still investigating the case and is scheduled to meet with the Royal Scientific Society engineers who conducted the preliminary tests on the shipment, Petra reported.

The gas cylinders have been a hot topic in the local media as the director general of the Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology (JISM), Haydar Al Zaben, has reportedly said they do not meet local standards.

During the House panel’s meeting on Monday, attended by Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) CEO Abdel Karim Alawin, MP Mustafa Rawashdeh underlined the “sensitivity” of the issue as it is related to citizens’ lives, stressing that “no product should enter the local market without passing required tests.”

Alawin said the consignment was imported upon a tender floated to cover local market needs, adding that four companies had submitted bids and the Indian company was selected for offering the least cost, Petra reported.

“The company was tentatively chosen until it passed the final test results,” he said, noting that the shipment will not enter the market if it does not meet local standards.

Alawin underlined that the JPRC does not have the authority to approve or deny the entry of the shipment; only the government does.

He added that the government has formed a committee comprising the head of the Lower House Energy Committee, the president of the Gas Stations Owners Association, the JISM director, the dean of the University of Jordan’s engineering faculty and the director of the Energy Ministry’s oil derivatives department to supervise the laboratory tests on the samples from the shipment conducted by a German firm.

The entry of the Indian gas cylinders to the local market will be based on the results of the technical test conducted by the German lab, which is accredited by the European Union and JISM, Alawin noted.

AMMAN — The tourism sector contributed JD1.222 billion to the Kingdom’s economy in 2012, an increase from JD1.138 billion in 2010 representing 6.5 per cent in direct contribution to the gross domestic product, according to an official report released Wednesday.

The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for Jordan showed that there were almost 4.2 million inbound tourists (overnight visitors) travelling to Jordan in 2012, spending nearly JD3 billion.

“The average spend per inbound tourist per day was estimated at JD67,” said the report, launched by the Tourism Ministry and developed in partnership with the Department of Statistics and support from the USAID Economic Growth Through Sustainable Tourism Project.

The TSA is the framework recommended by the UN World Tourism Organisation for organising tourism statistics and measuring the sector’s contribution to the economy.

It is a “satellite” to the national income accounts, the data systems that all countries use to track the activity of their economies and calculate indicators such as gross domestic product and growth rates.

The report showed that Saudi Arabia is the largest individual generating market for inbound tourism to Jordan, accounting for over 582,000 tourists — 14 per cent of all arrivals — in 2012.

An additional 2.2 million inbound day visitors travelled to Jordan in 2012, spending almost JD152 million, or around JD71 per day trip, according to the report, a copy of which was sent to The Jordan Times.

The report said domestic tourists (overnight visitors) took 1.1 million trips in 2012, spending JD245 million — which includes expenditures in Jordan by outbound tourists who are residents travelling within the country en route to another destination.

An additional 2.9 million domestic tourists (day visitors) travelled in Jordan in 2012, spending over JD34 million, or around JD12 per day, according to the report.

According to the TSA, 4.2 million tourists visited Jordan in 2012, representing a 6 per cent growth in arrivals compared to 2011.

“The information produced by the TSA enables the government to plan more effectively and draw up more efficient policies with regards to the tourism sector in the future,” said Issa Gammoh, secretary general of the Tourism Ministry.

“The data also illustrates the significance of tourism and the positive impact it has on other sectors in Jordan, such as transport and industry,” Gammoh added in a statement sent to The Jordan Times.

Ibrahim Osta, chief of party of the USAID Economic Growth Through Sustainable Tourism Project, said USAID will continue supporting the publication of the TSA for Jordan.

He added that initially, producing the first TSA report in 2008 was a challenging experience for all concerned, but having now completed this third report, “an active and effective collaboration has been established between all partners and we are seeing dynamic and cooperative efforts to continually refine the process from start to finish.”

AMMAN — Several MPs on Wednesday called for boycotting any joint sessions with the Senate before the Constitutional Court issues its interpretation of articles 89 and 92 of the Constitution that govern joint sessions.

During its session, the Lower House endorsed a memorandum submitted by 13 deputies seeking the Constitutional Court’s view on these two provisions.

In the memo, MPs inquire about the possibility of accepting a third option when endorsing a piece of legislation, instead of being confined to the Senate or the Lower House version.

The issue had come up recently when the two Houses met in a joint session to resolve their dispute over the draft social security law, with the Lower House insisting on linking early retirement pensions with the inflation rate, a move rejected by senators.

In their joint session in December, several deputies called for taking a third option that was put forward by the legal committees of both Houses, but the absolute majority at the meeting voted in favour of the Upper House’s version instead.

In the memo presented on Wednesday, the 13 deputies also sought the Constitutional Court’s opinion on identifying the required majority in joint sessions to endorse bills.

Article 89 of the Constitution stipulates, in its third paragraph, that “a joint meeting of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies shall not be considered properly constituted unless an absolute majority of the members of each House is present.

“Resolutions at such a meeting shall be taken by a majority of the senators and deputies present, exclusive of the speaker who, in case of equality of votes, shall have a casting vote.”

Article 92 of the Constitution reads: “Should either House twice reject any draft law and the other accept it… both the Senate and the Chamber shall hold a joint meeting under the chairmanship of the speaker of the Senate to discuss the matters in dispute.

“Acceptance of the draft law shall be conditional upon the passing of a resolution by a two-thirds majority of the members of both Houses present.”

Meanwhile, MPs agreed to hold a general discussion session over the decline of Jordan’s ranking on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index from 58th to 66th place out of 198 countries.

AMMAN — Two months after the strongest snowstorm in over a decade hit the country, conservationists announced on Wednesday that one-third of the Kingdom’s forests were damaged, warning that the worst is yet to come.

After more than 20,000 trees were uprooted and hundreds of thousands of branches were broken due to the heavy snow, conservationists said the Kingdom’s forests are “now heading towards an environmental catastrophe”.

“The forests witnessed so much damage after the snowstorm. Unfortunately, its impact will linger for years to come…” Director of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) Yehya Khaled said at a press conference.

In Ajloun Forest Reserve, which extends over 12,000 dunums in Ajloun Governorate, 70km northwest of the capital, a total of 1,047 trees, making up 20 per cent of the reserve’s green cover, were broken, its director, Nasser Abbasi, said.

“So many trees were broken, and this is a loss by itself, but now the forest ground is blanketed with fallen branches,” Abbasi told reporters.

“If the branches are not removed before the picnicking season starts in April, Ajloun will this summer witness a great number of wildfires, which will eliminate what remains,” he warned.

Meanwhile, in Dibbeen Nature Reserve, located in Jerash Governorate, 48 kilometres north of Amman, the volume of damage was higher.

More than 12,237 forest trees were uprooted in Dibbeen, according to Dibbeen Nature Reserve Director Bashir Ayasrah, who added that the number of trees with broken branches is estimated at hundreds of thousands.

“A total of 85 per cent of the uprooted trees were Aleppo pines, whose roots spread horizontally, making them susceptible to uprooting,” Ayasrah said at the conference, organised by the RSCN.

All of the conservationists called for organising a nationwide voluntary campaign to remove the fallen trees and branches, followed by another national effort to plant trees to replace the damaged and uprooted ones.

Eid Zu’bi, director of the Agriculture Ministry’s forestry department, told reporters that scores of labourers will be appointed on March 1 and will be working across the governorates to remove fallen branches.

“However, no matter how many labourers we appoint, removing fallen branches is an effort that we cannot complete alone; we need everyone’s help,” Zu’bi said.

He added that the forestry department launched a plan for planting trees that can stand harsh weather conditions, noting that deciduous trees withstand the impact of snow.

The snowstorm was not the only a threat to the country’s forests during this winter, according to the conservationists, who highlighted that illegal logging increased following the snowstorm.

Illegal logging during winter, fires during summer and insufficient rain due to climate change are the main threats to Jordan’s shrinking green cover, according to experts, who said that forests occupy less than 1 per cent of Jordan’s terrain.