Riyadh – Mubasher: The Governor of the General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT), Suhail Bin Muhammad Abanmi, said that member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are working on an electronic networking project to facilitate trade exchange.

The project is in its first phase, and GCC countries are soon to begin working on it, Abanmi added yesterday in a speech to the 2019 Zakat and Tax Conference (ZTC), held in Riyadh on 13-14 November.

Commitment rates to the selective tax within GCC comply with international practices and cannot be changed, he further noted, indicating that tobacco consumption dropped by 44% since the special tax was introduced, as shown by the Saudi Ministry of Health data.

The Governor of GAZT then explained that the authority worked with private and public sector partners in applying the value-added tax (VAT).

Earlier, the Saudi Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al Jadaan, said that VAT revenues in the first year of its introduction in the Kingdom amounted to SAR 46.7 million.