KUWAIT: The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday urged member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to raise tax and cut spending to compensate losses from lower oil prices, Gulf News reported.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was visiting the United Arab Emirates for the first time as chief of the international financial organization.
She told the Arab Fiscal Forum in the UAE capital that the combined oil revenue losses due to the fall in oil prices in the GCC have reached 340 billion U. S. dollars.
The GCC states shall increase revenues from non-oil sources and at the same time “reengineer their tax system,” Lagarde said.
She welcomed GCC countries’ plans to simultaneously implement a value-added tax regime by 2018, saying such a tax “even at a low single digit rate, can could raise up to two percent of the GCC’s gross domestic product.”
Lagarde also said the oil producing Gulf states shall build up tax administration capacities which enable them to introduce taxes on incomes.
