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Diversifying revenue sources and implementing tax reforms through taxes “remain key priorities” for the oil-exporting Gulf countries, the International Monetary Fund said.
“For the GCC, continuing to diversify revenue sources and implement tax reforms (through the introduction and expansion of value-added, personal income, and corporate income taxes) remain key priorities,” IMF said in the World Economic Outlook.
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“Notably, after adopting or committing to adopt a value-added tax, some GCC countries are now in the process of introducing a corporate income tax, in part amid the implementation of the global minimum corporate income tax. In addition, Oman is in the final legislative stages of adopting a personal income tax on high-income earners,” the fund said.
In 2018, the UAE introduced five per cent VAT as part of the GCC-wide framework. It was increased by Saudi Arabia to 15 per cent. While the UAE introduced a 9 per cent corporate income tax in 2023, Oman has proposed to levy income tax on the rich.
These taxes will help oil-exporting countries to diversify their income sources and also boost revenues of the non-oil exporting regional countries.
“Scaling back regressive and inefficient subsidies and avoiding generalised wage increases and transfers would help redirect resources toward more targeted social protection programmes. For some economies, expanding the tax base to increase the revenue stream could provide the funds needed to meet social and developmental needs,” IMF said.
Jihad Azour, director for Middle East and Central Asia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said tax reforms in the GCC are part of the strategy to diversify economies.
“We have seen steady progress in the GCC over the last few years with the introduction of new tax measures and the modernisation of revenue administration. In the case of UAE, the country has an almost fully automated revenue administration with one of the best systems of tax collection, tax refund and so on,” said Azour.
He added that most of the work has been done on consumption taxes such as VAT. “The new frontier is to diversify the tax base by widening the distribution of the tax net in order to reduce the pressure on one specific group or specific country. We are seeing several countries, including the UAE, introducing – as part of the global trend – the tax on corporations,” he said, adding that part of the strategy is to create a permanent revenue base. Accelerating revenue reforms at the time when the economy is growing is much better than doing it when the economy is slowing down.
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