A call by Saudi Arabia’s ministry of rural and municipal affairs to introduce a 100 % tax on payments at eating places that serve shisha has sparked criticism on kingdom’s social media.
Shisha smoking (utilizing a water-pipe, narghile or hookah) is a well-liked pastime within the nation. The brand new tax will probably be utilized even to non-smokers in the event that they go to a restaurant that serves shisha.
Some eating places have already stopped providing shisha, whereas others have lowered their costs.
Additionally on rt.com
Saudi Arabia opens as much as overseas tourism to cut back financial reliance on oil
The federal government’s official gazette mentioned this month that the tax will apply to all tobacco merchandise. Nonetheless, the ministry defined the ruling will apply “to the full bill of the enterprise serving tobacco merchandise.”
Arabic hashtag “tax on hookah eating places” is presently trending on social media networks, with prospects posting images of their restaurant payments. The payments reveal the preliminary quantity greater than doubles when making an allowance for the brand new 100 % tax and a still-unpopular 5 % worth added tax which went into impact final 12 months.
The brand new measure comes along with others, like slicing subsidies on gasoline and energy and imposing new taxes together with on cigarettes and smooth drinks.
Some counsel the brand new tax may very well be a measure to guard public well being.
“That is an oblique method to prohibit shisha with out truly prohibiting it,” one Twitter person mentioned.
One other identified the choice goes towards the nation’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 ambitions to vary its ultra-conservative picture and revamp the financial system.
Saudi columnist Bassam Fatiny criticized the scale of the tax as ill-considered.
“Allow us to assume that tax on tobacco has environmental and well being advantages, is it logical that or not it’s 100 %!” he mentioned on Twitter. “The ministry will need to have misunderstood Imaginative and prescient (2030).”
Opening the nation to tourism and inspiring funding is central to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 reform program to wean the Saudi financial system off oil.
For extra tales on financial system & finance go to RT’s enterprise part
