Tax-free days ending for Saudis after oil slump

RIYADH: Tax-free living will soon be a thing of the past for Saudis after cabinet on Monday approved an IMF-backed value-added tax to be imposed across the Gulf following an oil slump.

Residents of the energy-rich region had long enjoyed a tax-free and heavily subsidised existence but the collapse in crude prices since 2014 sparked cutbacks and a search for new revenue.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter and the largest economy in the Arab region.

It froze major building projects, cut cabinet ministers’ salaries and imposed a wage freeze on civil servants to cope with last year’s record budget deficit of $97 billion.

It also made unprecedented cuts to fuel and utilities subsidies.

The kingdom is broadening its investment base and boosting other non-oil income as part of economic diversification efforts and aims to balance its budget by 2020.

Cabinet “decided to approve the Unified Agreement for Value Added Tax” to be implemented throughout the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

“A Royal Decree has been prepared,” it said.

A five-percent levy will apply to certain goods following a GCC agreement last June.

The move is in line with an International Monetary Fund recommendation for Gulf states to impose revenue-raising measures including excise and value-added taxes to help their adjustment to lower crude prices which have slowed regional growth.

The GCC countries have already agreed to implement selective taxes on tobacco, and soft and energy drinks this year.