In line with Article 11 of the Oman Excise Tax Law, the Ministry of Finance has just published the Council Of Ministers’ Decision on the scope and rates of Excise Tax.

As expected, the following is the current list of Excise Goods and the respective rates of applicable Excise Tax (already included in the recently published Excise Tax Implementation Guide, and covered in the Deloitte Middle East Indirect Tax Alert on Oman Excise Tax last week):

The announcement also expands on definition of the products under each category:

• Tobacco and tobacco products: covers all kinds of tobacco mentioned in Chapter 24 of the Unified Customs Coding of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), imported into or grown/produced in Oman.   
• Pork products: being all pork meat, parts, insides, pig fat and all its by-products that are edible whether fresh, cooled, frozen, dried, salted and other by-products of pork that are categorized as Goods of Special Nature in the Unified Customs Coding of the GCC.
• Alcoholic drinks: drinks that contain a specific percentage of alcohol, and includes all kinds that are categorized as Goods of Special Nature in the Unified Customs Coding of the GCC.
• Energy drinks: any drinks that contain stimulant materials, or motivate the brain or body, and includes caffeine, turine, jinxing, juarna. Also, any concentrate, solutions, gels or extracts that may be converted to energy drinks are also considered as energy drinks.    
• Carbonated drinks: any manufactured drinks that have preservative items, gases and flavors that give it a unique taste that is different from another kind added to it.  Any concentrates, solutions, gels or extracts that may be converted to carbonated drinks are also considered carbonated drinks.

The announcement also provides information on how to calculate the amount of Excise Tax due, but there are still a number of issues that need to be addressed. Excise Tax will be levied on the higher of the Retail Sale Price (as determined by the taxpayer) or the Standard Price (as defined from time to time by the Secretariat General for Taxation).  There is no guidance yet out on how to calculate the Retail Sale Price, apart from the point that Retail Sale Price will not include the “service” element or value-added when the good is sold in a restaurant or hotel, but it will include other taxes such as VAT when it is introduced.

Businesses affected should continue to prepare for the introduction of Excise Tax on 15 June 2019, or start work on the requirements if they have not commenced preparation.  Should you have any questions or need assistance in preparing for the forthcoming implementation and beyond, please contact a member of the Deloitte Oman Indirect Tax team or your local Deloitte contact for more information.