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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Prime Minister Hani Mulki Tuesday met heads of the Kingdom's 100 municipal councils as part of the dialogue the government had begun with all sectors to find solutions to economic challenges facing the country.

Mulki told the meeting, held at the Al Hussein Cultural Centre, that the government attached great importance to this meeting with mayors, who were elected by the people to hold the responsibility and enhance development in rural, urban and Badia regions.

He said the country needed all its people in order to pass "this difficult situation and address the challenges facing us all".

The premier reviewed the key features of the government's fiscal and structural reform programme, which, he said, is a national programme based on the national interest of the state.

He pointed out that the economic challenges posed to the country in the past years were due to a host of reasons, some of which are "outside our will", namely the situation in the region, the disruption of Egyptian gas supplies and the Syrian refugee crisis, while others are domestic and tied to an expansion in spending and unjustified and ill-advised exemptions related to the sales tax.

He stressed that self-reliance is the solid basis to protect the country, and is a noble strategic goal that "we seek to achieve through a collective effort to spare the country and its citizens from any future challenges resulting from deferring our problems".

Self-reliance is the direction and key goal in the current stage, he stressed, adding that reform measures the government started last year had helped to stem an increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio, which was at about 77 per cent in 2011 and had risen to 95.2 per cent last year, and now stands at around 94.7 per cent, which means "we managed to stop the bleeding, start recovery and put the economy on the right track".

Commenting on proposed amendments to the income tax law, Mulki said the government is committed, under the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, to take into consideration the middle class and low-income groups, pledging that there will be no change affecting the individuals and families segments, but emphasised revisiting the law.

He pointed out that the amendment aims to raise the efficiency of tax collection and punish evaders, calling tax evasion "a crime against the country and Jordanians" that should be firmly dealt with.

He said that stiff penalties will be introduced against tax evasion, which could reach imprisonment, that is not subject to be replaced with a fine, adding that a tax investigation unit is being set up to crackdown on tax dodging and pursue perpetrators.

Commenting on the sales tax, Mulki said it is unreasonable that tax exemptions go to non-Jordanians, as the national economy bears the repercussions, since about one third of the population are non-Jordanians who benefit from commodity exemptions.

"Subsidies should go only to Jordanians, not to the other non-Jordanian third of the population", he stressed, adding that all subsidized commodities, without exception, are currently under review to ensure that a subsidy is directed to the citizens, not to the commodity itself.

For their part, the mayors raised a variety of national issues, including economic challenges and problems facing their municipalities, stressing that self-reliance is a national duty and expressing their support of the government to fight tax evasion. They also said the middle class and groups with limited income should be protected from price rises.