Muscat: Oman’s Ministry of Finance has postponed the decision to implementation of Value-Added Tax (VAT) until 2019.
The application of the selective tax on certain products will start by the middle of 2018, the ministry said.
No further details have been given about the postponement by the Omani authoirites.
In November, 2016, Oman announced that it will implement value-added tax (VAT) by the beginning of 2018 in a move to diversify its revenues amid the decline in oil prices.
The selective tax includes those harmful to health such as alcohol, tobacco, ham and fizzy and energy drinks.
The estimated income from VAT, Oman could add between $520 million (200 million Omani riyals) and $779 million (300 million riyals) every year, according to the Ministry.
The revenue generated will help diversify the country’s economy and provide a new source of income for the government coffers.
Levying VAT is the outcome of joint efforts between Oman and other GCC states, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Since 2015, Oman has been cutting state subsidies and introducing other austerity measures to curb a budget deficit that has totalled 3 billion riyals in the first nine months of 2017.
The writer is a journalist based in Muscat.
