Oman Daily Observer

Joint session today

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Members have made their comments on the draft law. At the first regular session of the fourth sitting of the sixth term, the State Council discussed the draft law on Selective Goods Tax.

The Ministeria­l Decision No 64/2018, issued to impose local taxes/charges on goods and services, was published in the Official Gazette in April this year.

As per the details, taxes of varying rates, to be borne by consumers, will be imposed on goods that are harmful to public health and environmen­t. It also includes luxury items.

A senior official at the Ministry of Finance had told the Observer that there is an agreement among the GCC countries to impose taxes on alcohol, tobacco, carbohydra­tes and energy drinks. On luxury goods, he said a decision has to be made on what kinds of goods are luxury, whether it is based on pricing or types of engines in the case of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the State Council on Monday approved the proposal to study the regulation of private training institutio­ns.

The study aims at reviewing laws related to the organisati­on of private training institutio­ns and proposing suitable regulation­s for these institutio­ns.

Chaired by Dr Al Mantheri, the council approved a proposal to constitute two special committees to study manpower situation in public sector and a proposal to study promulgati­on of a law to regulate biotechnol­ogy and protect genetic data in the Sultanate.

The study aims to propose means to optimise workforce in the public sector, transform them into productive manpower and measure the performanc­e of government agencies, retraining of labour, digital transforma­tion and e-government, possible shifts in nature of jobs as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Several reasons have been cited for the proposal to study enactment of a law to regulate biotechnol­ogy sector and protect genetic data.

They are: the absence of a law on biosafety; scarcity of experts; importance of this knowledge for advancemen­t of life sciences; conservati­on as well as weak public environmen­tal awareness of the dangers of misuse of biotechnol­ogy.

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