We are looking at corporate income tax… and a new system for collecting zakat

Saudi Investment Minister Khaled Al-Falih said that there is a new system for collecting zakat in the “government kitchen”, and that discussions are taking place with officials in the Zakat Authority to ensure that the system achieves ease of work procedures, clarity and transparency for investors, noting that “the discussion is very healthy.”

Al-Falih said in a speech during the activities of the Municipal Investment Forum “Foras” held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, “We are working on the issue of regulations side by side with the system of collecting zakat.”

Al-Falih stressed, “We are also looking at the issue of income tax on companies, and there may be initiatives in this matter that will not be preempted, and the most important thing is that we have a very good situation that we will improve to reach the degree of distinction and excellence in particular in the issue of procedures, because the clarity of procedures represents a challenge and there is an opportunity for improvement.”

“The volume of investment opportunities in the Kingdom, according to the National Investment Strategy, amounted to 12.4 trillion riyals, and a large proportion of these investments are within the cities of the Kingdom, and the volume of investment opportunities in the Saudi tourism sector amounts to 1.1 trillion riyals,” according to Al-Falih.

He stated that about 1.1 trillion riyals are the volume of investment opportunities in public utilities in the Kingdom, in addition to 1.7 trillion riyals, the volume of investment opportunities in the transport sector in the Kingdom.

He pointed out that a large proportion of the investment opportunities will be within the cities, adding that there are 4 main axes of the national investment strategy.

The Minister of Investment, Eng. Khaled Al-Falih, stressed that investment is the fuel that will transform the Kingdom’s cities from residential to economic engines comparable to the best global cities.

He said, “The Kingdom has moved in the past decades from a country dominated by the rural and rural character of agriculture and grazing, to a country comparable to the best countries in the world in terms of major cities, and we are proud of what we have achieved.”

Al-Falih pointed out that the majority of the Kingdom’s economy still comes from oil, mining and industrial cities in Jubail and Yanbu, but the productivity of cities is still behind compared to the major industrial countries, and cities today are a crucible for the manufacture of the new economy based on individual productivity.