Joint Majlis session on draft selective tax today

Muscat, Nov 12 - A joint session of the State Council and the Majlis Ash’shura will discuss the draft law on Selective Goods Tax on Tuesday in response to the Royal orders of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. Ahead of the joint session, to be chaired by Dr Yahya bin Mahfoudh al Mantheri, State Council Chairman, Majlis Ash’shura and the State Council discussed the areas of disagreement on the draft law. It will study and approve articles of disagreement between the State Council and Majlis Ash’shura pertaining to the draft law on Selective Goods Tax Law, referred by the Council of Ministers and a report of the Joint Committee.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Majlis Ash’shura said it discussed the areas disagreement and articles which the State Council decided to add to the proposed draft tax law on selective goods for discussion on Tuesday. Subsequently, the council discussed the articles bearing disagreement in the draft law on Selective Commodity Tax Law, transferred by the Council of Ministers and a report of the Joint Committee. Saleh bin Saeed Masan, Chairman, Economic and Financial Committee, said there are five articles on which there is a disagreement.

Members have made their comments on the draft law. At the first regular session of the fourth sitting of the sixth term, the State Council discussed the draft law on Selective Goods Tax. The Ministerial Decision No 64/2018, issued to impose local taxes/charges on goods and services, was published in the Official Gazette in April this year. As per the details, taxes of varying rates, to be borne by consumers, will be imposed on goods that are harmful to public health and environment. It also includes luxury items.

A senior official at the Ministry of Finance had told the Observer that there is an agreement among the GCC countries to impose taxes on alcohol, tobacco, carbohydrates and energy drinks. On luxury goods, he said a decision has to be made on what kinds of goods are luxury, whether it is based on pricing or types of engines in the case of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the State Council on Monday approved the proposal to study the regulation of private training institutions.

The study aims at reviewing laws related to the organisation of private training institutions and proposing suitable regulations for these institutions.

Chaired by Dr Al Mantheri, the council approved a proposal to constitute two special committees to study manpower situation in public sector and a proposal to study promulgation of a law to regulate biotechnology and protect genetic data in the Sultanate.

The study aims to propose means to optimise workforce in the public sector, transform them into productive manpower and measure the performance of government agencies, retraining of labour, digital transformation and e-government, possible shifts in nature of jobs as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Several reasons have been cited for the proposal to study enactment of a law to regulate biotechnology sector and protect genetic data.

They are: the absence of a law on biosafety; scarcity of experts; importance of this knowledge for advancement of life sciences; conservation as well as weak public environmental awareness of the dangers of misuse of biotechnology.