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Ammon News - Representative of the foodstuff sector in the Jordan Chamber of Commerce (JCC), Raed Hamadeh, called on reducing sales tax and service fee on the sector of non-tourist (popular) restaurants, similar to what is applied on tourist businesses.

In a press statement on Saturday, he stressed the need to respond to the JCC's continuing demands to slash the sales tax on non-tourist restaurants from 16 to 8 percent, and the service levy from 10 to 5 percent to achieve "fair" competition between businesses operating in the sector.

Hamadeh said reduction of sales tax on non-tourist restaurants would reflect "positively" on decreasing prices, which would make the citizen the primary beneficiary of this decision.

The government, he noted, had reduced the sales tax and service levy on approximately 1,500 tourist restaurants, while there are 750 non-tourist businesses are waiting inclusion in the decision to activate Jordan's commercial movement and support stability of restaurant workers, as their number stands at about 10 thousand.

Hamadeh deemed continued exclusion of Jordan's non-tourist restaurants from the sales tax reduction decision as "unfair" and "inconsistent" with the Competition Law.
Non-tourist restaurants offer cuisine that reflects Jordan's heritage, which serve " limited and low" income customers, stressing that the financial impact of reducing tax on these businesses is "modest" in return for increasing the purchasing power of citizens, according to Hamadeh.

Hamadeh also stressed the necessity of carrying out the "real" public-private sector in the current period by making incentive decisions that contribute to moving the wheel of economy and reviving all commercial markets.