Shoura member urges 20% tax on Saudi investments abroad

Arab News
August 2, 2017

Riyadh, Aug 2: A Shoura Council member has called for a 20 percent tax on Saudi investments abroad, as is the case with foreign investments in the Kingdom, local media reported.

The proposed tax will generate billions of riyals in state income and contribute to the national economy by offsetting the exit of Saudi capital investments, Fahd bin Jumaa, deputy chairman of the Financial Committee at the Shoura Council, told Al-Hayat daily.

Based on the latest data released by the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp. (Dhaman), direct Saudi investments in foreign countries amounted to nearly SR155.3 billion ($41.4 billion) between 2003 and 2015, he said.

There were 526 Saudi projects abroad owned by 240 companies in more than 30 foreign and Arab countries, creating more than 96,000 jobs, he said, adding that this was a loss to the Saudi economy.

Tax evasion could be avoided by signing tax-evasion agreements with countries, and the proposal will help achieve the objectives of Vision 2030, he said.

According to UN Conference on Trade and Development estimates, the cost of Saudi foreign direct investment projects is close to SR155.25 billion.

China, Turkey, the UAE, Jordan, South Korea, Egypt, Lebanon, South Africa, Pakistan and the US are reportedly on the list of countries with Saudi investments.

The Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) topped the list of Saudi companies investing abroad, implementing 81 projects with investments estimated at SR37.5 billion.

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News Network
March 12,2024

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Congratulating the Muslim world on the occasion of Ramadan, Iran calls on Muslim countries to unite against the Israeli regime's ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip on the occasion of the arrival of the holy fasting month.

"I cordially congratulate the honorable Iranian nation, the entire Muslims of the world, and my counterparts in Muslim countries on the occasion of the emergence of the blessed month of Ramadan," Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

"Gaza's developments showed that, as the common ideal of all Muslims, the issue of Palestine rests at the top of the Muslim world's [list of] priorities," he added.

The holy month, he added, can serve as a "premium opportunity" for Muslim countries "to effectively take the initiative, under the aegis of all-out unity and convergence, towards stopping the apartheid Zionist regime's genocide and war crimes in Gaza."

Amir-Abdollahian, meanwhile, expressed confidence that "the resistance and the Palestinian people are the main victors of this arena."

Israel launched the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.

Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on Gaza, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle. Earlier this month, the United Nations warned that in the absence of any changes in the regime’s ongoing genocidal war, the coastal sliver was on course to experience all-out famine.

So far during the military onslaught, the regime has killed more than 31,112 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents.

Also on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Israeli regime to honor the spirit of the holy month by "silencing the guns."

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News Network
March 7,2024

houthi.jpg

A missile fired by Yemen's Houthi fighters hit a bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, with the crew reporting three people dead and at least four wounded, the US military said.

In protest against Israel’s inhuman Gaza onslaught, the Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting Israel-bound merchant vessels transiting the vital Red Sea trade route for months and have previously hit ships in the area, but the deaths on Wednesday appear to be the first fatalities resulting from such an attack.

An anti-ship ballistic missile struck the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned M/V True Confidence, after which its crew reported "three fatalities, at least four injuries, of which three are in critical condition, and significant damage to the ship", the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

"The crew abandoned the ship and coalition warships responded and are assessing the situation", the military command said, noting that the attack was the fifth time the Houthis had launched an anti-ship ballistic missile in two days.

"These reckless attacks by the Houthis have disrupted global trade and taken the lives of international seafarers", CENTCOM added.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on social media that the True Confidence was targeted with multiple missiles "after the ship's crew rejected warning messages" from the Houthis.

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News Network
March 10,2024

lebanon.jpg

At least five people have been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, according to first responders and local media, amid exchanges of near-daily fire between the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement and Israel since the latter launched its assault on Gaza.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that a family of four, including a father, his pregnant wife and their two sons, and another individual, were killed in the Israeli strike on a house in the al-Ain neighborhood of Khirbet Selm village in southern Lebanon early on Sunday.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, were quoted as saying that Israeli fighter jets launched two air-to-surface missiles at the residential building, reducing it to rubble.

Ambulance crew and relief teams recovered the bodies from under the debris and transported them to the Tibnin Governmental Hospital morgue.

The Israeli air raid also resulted in the injury of nine other people and caused serious damage to several surrounding houses.

Israel has been striking Lebanon since the beginning of the regime’s hostilities in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has prompted retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in support of the Palestinians in the blockaded area. The Lebanese movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.

Hezbollah fighters have recently targeted Israeli troops near the border with southern Lebanon and rained down rockets on Israeli military sites, including those in Ruwaisat al-Qarn, Zibdin, and Jabal Nader regions.

Also on Saturday, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the southern Lebanese town of Majdal Zoun, destroying it. An Israeli drone fired a missile at an empty house in the border town of Blida as well.

In mid-February, an Israeli strike knocked down part of a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, killing seven members of the same family, including a child. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble.

In a separate Israeli attack, a woman and her two children were killed in the village of as-Sawana in southern Lebanon.

The occupying regime has also killed close to 31,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, most of them women and children.

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