Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammad Ississ, said the Jordanian government has followed a policy aimed to avoid raising the citizen’s tax burden and focusing on boosting gov’t revenues by fighting tax and customs evasion and avoidance in “a more equitable” tax treatment.
This approach is implemented, especially since the tax burden should not be hiked on the committed taxpayers, while other categories fail to fulfil their national duty, the minister noted.
This came during Ississ’s participation in a dialogue session held by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington Wednesday, entitled “Jordan: Great Expectations: Achieving Fiscal Discipline With Social Protection in Uncertain Times.”
Ississ was chosen as the only minister representing the Middle East in this IMF ” Governor Talk,” due to Jordanian government’s success in maintaining financial and macro stability during the harshest conditions, according to the IMF Director Middle East and Central Asia Department, Jihad Azour, who hosted and moderated the session, as part of the during the IMF-World Bank 2022 Spring Meetings, in Washington, DC.
Ississ indicated that the government’s financial and economic reform program, carried out in cooperation with the IMF is on the “right” track, as it has freedom of its economic decisions.
The government adopted these reforms after a scientific analysis that these structural reforms will unleash economic growth leading to job creation for Jordan’s ambitious youth who are able to advance the Kingdom’s national economy, he noted.
The government’s policy in combating tax and customs evasion came in response to the population’s demands for “equitable tax treatment and for everybody to pay their fair share”, instead of raising tax rates as previous programmes with previous programmes. The result was that Jordan was been able to exceed the domestic revenue targeted specified in its 2021 General Budget, he pointed out.
Source: Jordan News Agency