Muscat: His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik has approved the economic stimulus package as part of achieving high growth rates planned in the Oman 2040 Vision including reducing the rental value in the Special Economic Zone of Duqm and industrial zones until the end of 2022, Oman News Agency (ONA) reported on Tuesday.
The stimulus package also included incentives for the business and investment environment, including facilitating business and granting long-term residency for foreign investors in accordance with specific controls and conditions.
Following are the highlights of the stimulus package approved by His Majesty:
*Improved incentives for business and investment environment
Permission to conduct business and commercial and investment activities by obtaining an initial licence that allows the investor to practice commercial activity without waiting for the final licence to be obtained.
Incentives for companies registered in accordance with the Foreign Capital Investment Law, incentives for companies owned by Omani citizens, with regard to commercial registration fees.
Immediately upon incorporation, foreign investment companies are automatically granted three licenses to bring in an expatriate workforce in accordance with the controls in effect after the issuance of the commercial register.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion signed a service agreement for all strategic investment projects of more than OMR 1,000,000.
Allowing companies to own lands of 5,000 square meters and more and real estate to practice the activity authorized for purchase in accordance with applicable legislation, with the exception of lands that are not permitted to be owned by non-Omanis, in accordance with the following controls:
The ownership of the lands and real estate necessary to carry out the activities of the company licensed in the Commercial Registry.
The ownership of lands and real estate be in an area commensurate with the actual needs of the activities licensed in the commercial registry.
Corporate ownership of land and real estate should be limited to purchase in residential, commercial, commercial, industrial and touristic purpose.
Companies can make use of more than 50% of the purchased real estate to practice activities registered in the commercial registry, and they may rent or sell what exceeds their actual needs, with the exception of real estate purchased for tourism purposes and integrated commercial complexes.
Approval of preparing a financing program from the Oman Development Bank to promote exports of Omani products and services.
The concerned authorities should, within one month from its date, restructure the municipal fees related to commercial activities licenses by merging some of them and canceling the unnecessary ones.
Incentives to support small and medium enterprises:
Reducing the income tax rate from 15% to 12% for small and medium enterprises for the tax years 2020 and 2021.
Loan installments for small and medium enterprises due to Al Raffd Fund continue to be postponed until the end of December 2021.
The award of government procurement tenders whose value does not exceed OMR 10,000 is restricted to small and medium enterprises whose owners have Ryada card, and the exception to this is made by a reasoned decision by the unit head.
Labour market and employment incentives
— Allocating OMR 20 million in the 2021 budget to train Omani job seekers and qualify them for the labour market.
— Reducing recruitment licence fees and renewing licenses to practice work for the non-Omani workforce identified as follows:
a) 50% for establishments and companies achieving Omanisation rates.
b) 25% for institutions and companies that employ Omani workforce.
Banking incentives:
- Continue the procedures for postponing repayment of laid-off citizens' loans until further notice and to citizens whose wages have been reduced until the end of September of this year.
- Instructing banks to continue responding to requests to postpone the installments and interest of all borrowers' profits affected by the repercussions of the pandemic for another six months, until the end of September 2021.
- Continuing to work with the incentive packages related to granting credit, including raising the ceiling of the loan ratio, facilitating lending to the affected and productive sectors, and reducing the preventive capital ratios.
- The Central Bank of Oman must work with banks and finance and leasing companies to reschedule loans to match the new cash flows of borrowers to ensure that they enhance their capabilities to fulfill their contractual obligations with financing institutions.
