Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar may need a year and a half to introduce an agreed 5 percent value added tax (VAT) rate, said an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official.

The deputy director of the IMF's fiscal affairs department, Abdelhak Senhadji, told The National that the countries may require more time than initially expected following a Gulf Cooperation Council deal to implement the tax in 2016.

The group has originally said countries would have until the end of 2018 for implementation but legislative and administrative steps have been slow in some cases.

"Technically they should be able to be ready in a year and a half," Senhadji was quoted as saying. "Of course there is the issue of political will to introduce it."

In Bahrain the government has suspended the tax's introduction until a joint committee of the cabinet and the parliament agrees on a mechanism to help lower-income Bahrainis weather the effects.

So far only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have implemented the tax, with Oman stating it will do so in 2019.

Arabic Version