Saudi Shoura Council wants steps to reduce tax evasion

The Saudi Shoura Council on Wednesday urged the General Authority for Zakat and Tax to increase efforts to collect value-added tax from social media celebrities and take measures to reduce tax evasion.
Saudi Shoura Council Speaker Dr. Abdullah Al-Asheikh chaired the virtual session of the council, which directed the Non-oil Revenue Development Center to assign a neutral body to study the socioeconomic impacts of nonoil revenue development initiatives.
The center aims to implement a unified strategy to develop the Kingdom’s nonoil revenues and improve government agencies’ revenue generation mechanisms.
The Shoura Council called on the Ministry of Education and the Council of University Affairs to support independent functioning of universities within their official framework and to take effective measures to ensure protection of intellectual property and uphold ethics of scientific research.
The council urged the Transport Ministry to expedite work on the improvement of the Kingdom’s road infrastructure and ensure proper and regular maintenance of roads as per international standards. SPA Riyadh
The council also discussed ways to boost the services of the Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia). Several suggestions were made for Saudia, which included introduction of small-sized aircraft for domestic routes and improvement in the airlines customer services to boost its revenues.