Double Fine for Smuggling of Selected Goods

The General Authority of Zakat & Tax has initiated legal procedures for the people who are involved in smuggling of Tobacco and other similar products. Saudi Customs department has directed most of the smugglers of tobaccos and similar products to the (GAZT) General Authority of Zakat & Tax

GAZT confirmed to have captured 4,794 violators of VAT in various regions of the Kingdom during the first 100 days, that is, since the beginning of January. In a statement, GAZT said 21 percent of the total violations were in the Makkah area, 18 percent in Riyadh, 11 percent in the Eastern Province, and the remaining 50 percent VAT violations in the rest of the Kingdom.

Hamoud Al-Harbi, official spokesperson of GAZT, said that since the introduction of the tax on Jan. 1 this year, the field teams of GAZT have carried out 12,578 visits in various regions of the Kingdom, including commercial centers, hospitals, pharmacies, gold shops, electronics stores, and others.

Most of the establishments registered in VAT have shown a high level of readiness to ensure smooth application of the tax, based on a number of procedures, including training of its employees, work to harmonize their accounting and information technology systems associated with tax operations, in addition to activating records management systems to save documents in the specified forms.