The Council of Ministers on Monday authorized minister of finance to fix the date for imposing selective tax in the Kingdom. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman chaired the weekly session of the Cabinet at Al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh. Last month, the Cabinet approved the uniform agreement on Value Added Tax (VAT) and selective taxes. Saudi Arabia's 2017 state budget recommended a five percent VAT from 2018, without any change in the prices. Other Gulf countries are also expected to implement VAT by the beginning of next year. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency following the session, Minister of Culture and Information Adel Al-Turaifi said the Cabinet approved the decision of the GCC Supreme Council held in Bahrain in Dec. 2016 with regard to the imposition of uniform selective tax. It also endorsed the GCC summit decision to instruct GCC embassies and consulates and the agencies concerned to ensure medical fitness of expatriate workers through an electronic linking system for their medical tests on a mandatory basis. It will not be allowed to carry out medical tests at health centers not approved by the Council of GCC Health Ministers. Al-Turaifi said the Cabinet lauded the continued efforts of security forces in foiling vicious plots of deviant groups, especially the recent successful preemptive operations that resulted in the dismantling of four Daesh cells in Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh and Al-Qassim regions. The Cabinet also strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Sitra village in Bahrain, in Mogadishu, as well as in Lahore. It reiterated its solidarity with Bahrain, Somalia and Pakistan in fighting terror in all its forms and manifestations. The Cabinet authorized the Crown Prince or his deputy to discuss and sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Saudi Ministry of Interior and the Japanese National Public Safety Commission with regard to security cooperation and combating crime. The Cabinet also entrusted ministers of national economy and planning, commerce and investment, and energy, industry and mineral resources to discuss and sign with the Japanese side a memorandum of cooperation between the Saudi and Japanese governments to implement Saudi-Japanese Vision 2030. In another decision, the Cabinet authorized minister of commerce and investment to discuss and sign a cooperation program in the field of trade with the governments of Indonesia, China, Japan and Maldives. It also entrusted ministers of commerce and investment, energy, industry and mineral resources, and labor and social development to discuss and sign with their counterparts in Malaysia MoUs in the fields of commerce and investment, industry, labor and human resources.
