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The right to import goods into Kuwait on a commercial basis is restricted to Kuwaiti individuals and firms who are members of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCl) and who have import licenses issued by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MCI). Customs duty is levied on all imports into Kuwait, if your tender documents stipulate that a price for goods delivered inside Kuwait is required, ensure that duty is included in your quoted price. The rate for most items is 4% however, if similar goods are manufactured inside Kuwait, or sometimes, other GCC countries, a higher rate can be applied to foreign imports. Get your agent to check with Customs. The duty rate is applied to the CIF cost of the goods. The General Directorate of Customs issued orders to implement the Amiri Decree 2 / 2002 to set taxes on all imported cigarettes and tobacco products by 100 percent. This decision to increase taxes is an implementation of the decision of the GCC council of minister of health to unify taxes at 100 percent. The move was to increase tobacco taxes from 70 percent to 100 percent to protect the health of the GCC citizens. On entering into a contract with your customer, ensure that local suppliers and sub-contractors are contractually bound to you with back-to-back terms and performance bonds. Although there is no personal tax, any foreign company is liable to tax on profits earned in Kuwait. Also in 2001, all docking fees were cancelled at Kuwait ports in an another outstanding step to attract foreign investments. |