Prominent members of Qatar’s business community have sought more clarity on the recently introduced ‘selective tax’ on specific goods that are deemed harmful to human health and the environment.
The General Tax Authority (GTA), which is in charge of implementing all tax laws and improving tax compliance in the country, needs to create more awareness about the new taxes as businesses in Qatar were not used to such taxes in past, Al-Khalaf Sons Chairman Ali Hassan al Khalaf told Qatar Tribune.
“We appreciate the government’s move to impose taxes on products that are harmful to human health. The new taxes are also in line with Qatar’s plans to reduce the country’s dependence on hydrocarbon resources. However, we need more clarity on goods that would be taxed under the new system. Till now we don’t know what all products will come under the selective tax net,” Khalaf said.
For example, he said, not many small groceries, supermarkets and hypermarkets are very clear about sugary energy drinks.
“Does sugary energy drinks mean only soft drinks or some other products also that have sugary energy contents. We really need to have more clarification from the concerned authorities. There are different versions to identify such products. There are various opinions and the tax authorities need to make it very clear,” Khalaf said.
“The businesses in Qatar should have been given more time to get prepared for such taxes. Any new tax system needs special arrangement from businesses. There should be a grace period to understand the whole system,” he said.
Representatives of another company dealing in such items raised concerns about the pricing of such products that are bought and sold in large volumes in carton.
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According to the new law, a 50 percent excise tax has been imposed on carbonated drinks and 100 percent on tobacco products and energy drinks in the retail market.
With the implementation of the new law, the official said, prices of soft drinks in pieces have gone up accordingly. “Many businesses, however, are not very clear if the prices of such soft drinks in cartons will be cheaper or will be charged as per pieces. Earlier customers used to buy such products in cartons so that they paid less. Now we are not sure if the cartons will cost less,” he said.
While the law establishing the GTA mandates the authority to implement all tax laws and setup all related bylaws, procedures and instructions and be responsible for their implementation, review and assess tax return forms and collect taxes from subject entities, the authority has said the list of consumer products that were chosen by the government for levying excise tax last month is not final.
“Some goods could either be added or removed from the list,” Hamad Mohamed Al-Attiyah, head of Indirect Tax at GTA said.
