A traffic fine in Kuwait has a defined settlement period: two months from the date of the offence. Pay within it and you pay the settlement amount. Miss it and the fine goes to court, where the numbers change.
The difference in figures
These amounts are from the violations and penalties page of the General Traffic Department:
| Settled within two months | After two months — court fine |
|---|---|
| 15 dinars | 30 to 50 dinars |
| 20 dinars | 45 to 75 dinars |
| 30 dinars | 50 to 100 dinars |
| 50 dinars | 100 to 200 dinars |
So a 20-dinar parking ticket can become 75, for no reason other than that you forgot about it.
The serious offences rise further: those under article 33 bis, covering running a light, drifting and speeding, settle at between 70 and 150 dinars, and carry a court penalty of between 600 and 1,000 dinars along with imprisonment.
Administrative licence withdrawal
Serious offences under articles 33, 33 bis and 34 carry an administrative withdrawal of the licence for up to four months. That period does not count toward any withdrawal a court orders later.
How to check
Through the Ministry of Interior portal: choose the enquiry type, individuals or companies, then enter the civil ID or the unified number. There is also an enquiry by plate number, useful if the vehicle is in someone else’s name or a company’s.
How to pay
Payment is through the Sahel app or the Ministry of Interior app, the two channels the ministry directs people to.
A warning that saves you paying twice
This notice is published on the service page itself and plenty of people miss it: after completing payment, do not try to pay again, because the records take around fifteen minutes to update.
So a fine still showing immediately after payment is normal, and not evidence that the transaction failed. Anyone who pays again in those fifteen minutes may pay twice.
In practice
- Check once a month. The fine that grows is the one you did not know about.
- Count the two months from the date of the offence, not from the date you found out.
- After paying, wait a quarter of an hour before checking again.
Further reading: General Traffic Department: violations and penalties · the violations enquiry portal · the e-portal: paying fines
Photo: a roadside speed camera. By Triplec85, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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