Income tax issue not under discussion: Saudi govt source
“The income tax issue is not under discussion,” an official source was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency as saying.
The source also said the issue has not been discussed in the Cabinet or at any other forum of the government.
The comment was in response to a Reuters report early on Wednesday quoting Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan.
According to the report, Al-Jadaan said that there’s no imminent plan to introduce an income tax but he didn’t rule out the possibility in the future.
The finance minister also took to Twitter, clarifying that what he said was with regard to the global financial practice where income tax is an option. Backing the statement made by the official source, he said the issue was not discussed in the Cabinet or at any other committees.
Saudi Arabia tripled its value-added tax to 15 percent on July 1, 2020 in a bid to counter the unprecedented economic fallout caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a collapse of oil prices.
Reeling under the double whammy of COVID-19 and the oil price crash, the Kingdom’s total revenues dropped 24 percent in the first quarter of 2020 to SR192 billion ($51 billion). Total expenditures reached SR226.179 billion, rising 4 percent from a year ago.
Saudi Arabia’s finance ministry is seeking to plug the budget deficit through local and international borrowing.
