Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): A Bahraini economist confirmed that all commodities not included in the list of 97 main commodities exempted from value added tax will be included in the implementation of the tax.

This means that the Bahraini citizen and resident will be forced to pay an additional 5% on the prices of all other commodities and services such as perfume, cars, clothing, watches, electronics of all kinds, kindergarten and private school fees, medical services, ownership transfer of properties, cleaning tools, household appliances, sanitary ware and many other commodities and services not excluded in the decree. That is, the consumer will pay one additional dinar for each non-exempted item he buys at 20 dinars and 5 dinars for purchases of 100 dinars.

The consumer will also have to pay 5% upon purchase or transfer of ownership of high-cost properties such as real estate, vehicles and gold.

"If we assume that a citizen will receive a net salary of 600 dinars, he will pay the government at least 25 dinars as a direct result of the new tax," a knowledgeable source told Bahrain Mirror.

The source added that this is at the level of the tax, while at the level of the cost of previous decisions such as the lifting of subsidies on oil, the citizen certainly pays 20 dinars as a result of the increased price of gasoline, 10 dinars as a result of the increase in electricity and water prices, and 6 dinars to the unemployment fund, and thus the total of all these taxes reaches 62 dinars.

"This is a large number, as a result of all these decisions, the citizen pays about 10% of his salary [...] This percentage is likely to increase, because the government intends to make new decisions, including increasing the payments of citizens to the Pension Fund," it further explained.

The tax-exempt list includes only a small number of commodities not more than 97 items; most are basic food staples, especially fresh produce; but not all food commodities.
The most notable non-taxable food commodities are avocados, dried grapes (raisins), papaya, quinces, cherries, plums, blackberries and white, red and black grapes.

The exemption also does not include canned food items such as Americana chicken, canned burgers, chicken, fish fillet and other canned foods. The tax will also include green tea boxes with a content of over 3 kg and tea bags with a weight greater than 3 grams.

There are many doubts about the efficiency of the administrative apparatus in Bahrain in the collection of taxes, especially from traders and sellers of goods with the guarantee of no tampering. "Everyone here is talking about the lack of clarity of the government's vision and unreadiness, even at the level of tax levying," says an economic expert.

The following is a list of commodities not included in the VAT. Five percent will apply to the remaining not included in the list.

Arabic Version