Syed Hussein Al -Qassab
The Shura Council discussed, in the last session of the third session, yesterday, the report of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee regarding Decree Law No. 11 of 2024 regarding the regulation of the tax on multinational projects, which included the committee’s recommendation to approve the decree of a law. The council pointed out that the decree of a law aims to achieve international requirements aimed at subjecting all economic activities to the tax system, in addition to the need to set guarantees to implement a minimum global for an additional local tax on the entities of the multinational projects group that is located in the Kingdom, in line with the typical rules and directives issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development related to the erosion of the tax container and the transfer of profits.
The First Vice -President of the Shura Council, Jamal Fakhro, provided a number of inquiries: “What are the number of Bahraini companies that will be subject to this law? Are there companies that will be exempted? The amount of revenues expected from these companies? He added: «We also would like to know the number of foreign companies and the number of companies that this law will apply to and the amount of their revenues, as we noticed that the report of the House of Representatives indicated that the expected revenues amount to 100 million dinars, while the Shura Council report stated that it is 130 million dinars, and it is important to know these numbers for follow -up, accountability and accountability, due to the impressive amounts it represents.
For his part, member Fouad Al -Hajji stressed that “the decree came in implementation of the government policy that was agreed upon between the legislative and executive authorities during the preparation of the state’s general budget, which is based on preparing a package of laws to enhance financial support for the Kingdom of Bahrain. He added that this decree is one of the laws that are calculated for the government for its role in enhancing financial support for the state from imposing fees or taxes on the citizen. Two faces, the first is financial and the second is social, as it will contribute to pumping funds for the development projects that the citizen will benefit from, and the general budget of the state is provided.
In the same context, member Dalal Al -Zayed indicated that the decree of a law is entirely to companies according to the agreement concluded with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, praising the government’s role in benefiting from international agreements that constitute a guarantee and financial supplier, especially with regard to increasing returns and raising budget income to meet the deficit. She noted that the National Revenue Agency has prepared the regulations and rules regulating this decree by law with all professionalism and competence.
At the end of the discussion, the Shura Council took the final opinion, and voted with approval of the decree of a law on regulating the tax on multinational projects.
