Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Cabinet on Monday approved the by-law on the income tax incentives of the industrial sector for 2019.

The draft law is in implementation of the government's commitments to the Lower House and the industrial sector when it approved the amendments to the Income Tax Law, which went into force early this year. Under the law, the industrial sector's income tax was raised from 14 percent to 20 percent, and the exemption of export profits from the income tax was suspended.

The by-law is within the government's plan to prop up the industrial sector and increase its competitiveness in foreign markets.

The draft was issued under Article 81 of the Income Tax Law No. 38 of 2018 and its amendments and incorporates bases and criteria that should be met for the industrial sectors, mainly attaining no less than 30 percent of local added value in terms of the employment of Jordanian men and women and people with special needs.

The income tax rate prescribed by the by-law for each of these criteria will be reduced according to tables that the reduction percentage in case of meeting all of these criteria, toward fulfilling the rates to achieve the required competitiveness, without being in excess of the ratios the sector was paying before 2019.

Also at the meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Omar Razzaz, the Cabinet approved issuing a financial by-law to subsidize the industrial sector when exporting that provides a 3% support of exports value in 2019, and 5% in 2020 for export industrial companies, with the exception of the clothing, pharmaceutical and mining sectors.