King Salman bin Abdulaziz has ordered the extension of a number of government initiatives to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on private industry, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.
The extended initiatives include:
- Lifting the temporary suspension of private sector facilities to correct activity status.
- Support Saudi citizens working in coronavirus-affected businesses through unemployment insurance (SANED).
- Allowing private sector companies to resume their business activities.
- Prohibiting the suspension of wages.
- Postpone custom fees on imports for 30 days against the submission of a bank guarantee.
- Calculating the employment of Saudis in the Nitaqat Program immediately for all enterprises.
- Hire qualified Saudi citizens for available positions.
- Ensure services are available to customers for 24/7
- Suspension of recruitment fines.
- Postponing the payment of value-added tax.
- Accelerating payment of VAT refund requests.
- Partial exemption from expired residency/iqama fees for an additional month, which might be renewed for an additional month if required.
- Allowing business owners to postpone payment of value – added tax, excise tax , income tax and submission of Zakat declarations during the coronavirus pandemic for a period of two months.
