RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council has approved the introduction of the “selective tax,” being rolled out across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries. The legislation will now be presented Saudi Arabia’s King, Salman bin Abdul Aziz, for ratification.
The tax is to be levied on luxury items and products that are “harmful to human health and the environment.” Its scope and rates will be the same for all the GCC states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. At a meeting on June 16, 2016, the GCC ministers of finance approved a common framework for the development of national regimes for the selective tax and the subsequent introduction of value-added tax.
