By: Ramy Sameeh
Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: The UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) is still in talks with the country’s Central Bank regarding the public debt law, stated the ministry’s undersecretary Younis Haji Al Khoori late Tuesday.
“We were hoping to issue the law by the end of 2016; however, it is still underway,” the top official stated at the Arab Ministries of Finance Conference in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking to reporters at the conference, Al Khoori declined to set a date for when the law will be issued.
In August, Al Khoori revealed that the UAE was working on issuing the law, which will allow the federal government to issue dirham-denominated bonds and the Central Bank to auction short-term treasury bonds on behalf of the government.
UAE banks will be able to make use of these debt issuances to meet the liquidity requirements made by the Basel III global banking regulations.
The draft law will set a frame to establish a UAE government bond market, which will be traded in one or more of the gulf country’s three securities markets.
The law entails at debt ceiling that does not exceed 25% of gross domestic product (GDP) or around AED 200 billion ($54.46 billion).
The value-added tax (VAT) and selective tax are also underway, Al Khoori revealed previously, but refused to set a timeframe for issuing either of them.
The selective tax is imposed to fight or reduce the consumption of some harmful products such as tobacco, alcohol and some soft drinks. The tax ranges between 50% and 100%.
On the other hand, the VAT is a consumer-based tax of 5% that will be imposed on products and services and is scheduled to be imposed across the GCC in January 2018.
Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi
