I wish the Shoura Council would divulge to us the reasons that led it to reject the proposal calling for the introduction of income tax on expatriates working in this country.
Levying an income tax on foreigners is a normal course of action taken by the overwhelming majority of the world’s countries, so if we had applied the same principle here it would not have been exceptional.
If the objective behind the refusal to impose the tax was to spare low-income workers any additional financial burdens, then making a ceiling to identify what levels of income should be taxed would have solved the problem. If there are some who earn a few hundred or a few thousand riyals, there are many whose monthly wages run into tens of thousands and may even reach fabulous figures as in the case of some Westerners working in big companies and hospitals.
I can’t discuss the action taken by the council further because I still don’t know the reasons that led 73 of its members to vote against imposing the tax. Those reasons have yet to be made public.
However, I can confirm that by not imposing the tax the state has been denied the privilege to exercise a right that is being exercised by all other countries of the world, including those from where these expatriates hail.
Arab News From the Local Press 18 January 2003
