On Monday evening, the Jordanian cabinet approved the amended Income Tax Bill and submitted it to the House of Representatives following 10 days of consultations, a day after the Council of Professional Unions’ request for the government to reconsider and review the bill.
In a statement issued by the cabinet, the amendments to the law that sparked popular strikes and protests months ago included the "raising in the tax on banks from 35 percent to 37 percent", in addition to adding a thousand dinars as bills for health, education, interest, markup and housing rent in 2020 and beyond, i.e. tax exemptions for the family amounted to 18 thousand dinars instead of 17 thousand dinars.
The statement pointed out that the principle of escalation in the taxes was confirmed by adding a new segment of very high income, who earn more than one million dinars per year are subject to a 30 percent tax rate, and the exemption of the social solidarity funds for trade unions from the income tax from the amounts paid for the exemption and their heirs.
For its part, the Council of Trade Unions called, during a meeting with a government last Saturday, to discuss about the Income Tax Bill and to take economic decisions that would restore confidence in the government.
It is well known that the bill sparked controversy in Jordan after it was approved by the previous government in late May, creating a wave of popular protests that overthrew the former Prime Minister “Hani Al-Mulqi”.
The decision of “Razzaz" to withdraw the project from parliament stopped the public anger that lasted for about 8 days, but the return of the government with an amended version of the law that is not very different from the previous one, according to critics. Thus, this raised anger among the Jordanians through popular positions rejecting the bill, during the government dialogue sessions in the various governorates of Jordan.
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