Bahrain Mirror: Finance Minister Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa replied to a question raised by MP about the details of unified GCC VAT agreement that will be reviewed by the House of Representatives in its next session on Tuesday (May 23, 2017) that "the basic food items, medicines and medical supplies will be excluded from the VAT that will be imposed by Bahrain along with the other GCC states."

He added "the VAT agreement that regulates the key frameworks and principles of Bahraini taxation system was signed by all the GCC states including Bahrain, which signed it on February 2, 2017. Legal measures are being taken now to ratify the agreement by the executive and legislative authorities."

He also said that the VAT percentage shall be unified among the GCC states, as the agreement was reached during discussions held with the representatives of the six states throughout the past years, noting that basic food items, medicines and medical supplies will be excluded from the tax."

Arabic Version