The Sultanate of Oman has introduced many substantial and meaningful measures to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19.

It is expected that these measures will be available during 2021 and 2022 with a review by the Council of Ministers at a later date.

Oman was hit hard by the pandemic and especially affected by the fluctuations in oil prices. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently announced that the inflation in Oman will decrease to 2.4% in 2022 compared to 3.8% in 2021.

The most recent report revealed that Oman’s economy contracted by 6.4% in 2020 and estimated it would initiate a modest recovery with a growth by 1.8% in 2021 and an acceleration of the growth by 7.4% in 2022.

In a bid to stimulate the economy, the Public Authority of Small & Medium Sized Enterprises Development (Riyada) announced that more than 1,000 organizations have been exempted from the payment of the government’s licence fees.

The exemptions cover selected sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, services and logistics as well as tourism and transport.

In order to be considered for the exemptions, businesses have to satisfy a number of requirements. These requirements include either registering for a new Riyada Card or updating the details of an existing Riyada Card. The authority pointed out that selling, assigning or disposing of commercial registrations which have benefited from the exemptions is not permitted.

Other measures of the government include reducing the corporate income tax for small and medium enterprises in selected sectors for 2021, reducing rent at the Special Economic Zone at Duqm and a number of industrial areas until the end of 2022 and offering of long-term resident permits for foreign individual and institutional investors in line with the Oman Vision 2040.

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