Damascus-Sana
The People's Assembly, in its twentieth session of the second ordinary session of the third legislative session, held under the chairmanship of Hammouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the Assembly, continued the discussion of the new investment bill.
The Board approved by majority the articles from 15 to 21 of the draft law, as Article 15 clarifies the duties of the Director General of the Syrian Investment Authority, which is “managing the Authority’s business, supervising its affairs, well executing the decisions issued by the Board of Directors, preparing plans and programs for the work of the Commission and its annual budget, granting rewards and imposing penalties on Its employees in accordance with the laws and regulations in force, contracting with experts, and exercising the right to appoint, promote, transfer and delegate.
Articles 16 to 19 dealt with the mechanisms for licensing investment projects and the work of the “Investor Services Center” which includes representatives of all public authorities concerned with investment and delegates them with the necessary powers to perform their duties and define them by a decision of the authority to which they belong in addition to the tasks of the center, including “receiving and studying investor requests to obtain a license Investment and obtaining all necessary licenses and approvals to start the project in coordination with the concerned authorities, issuing investment licenses, registering companies, and providing technical support, advice and the necessary data.
Articles 20 and 21 relate to investment incentives and benefits, including “exempting imports of machinery, equipment, production lines, and non-tourism service means of transport for projects that obtain an investment license from all customs and financial fees and non-customs additions during the establishment stage, provided they are used exclusively for the purposes of the project, while the investor must pay all these obligations in If it is used for purposes other than the project, or if it is assigned to others before the end of its specified useful life according to international accounting standards.
The two aforementioned articles also contain a number of tax incentives, foremost of which is “providing permanent tax exemption of 100 percent of income tax for agricultural and livestock production projects” and “tax reduction of 75 percent of income tax for a period of 10 years, starting from the date of operation, for projects that are set up in the regions.” Development, which falls within the sectors targeted for development, according to what the Authority’s Board of Directors determines by decree creating these areas.
The session, which was attended by the Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Dr. Muhammad Samer Al-Khalil, and the State for People's Assembly Affairs, Malloul Al-Hussein, rose to 12 noon on Sunday, the 14th of this month.
Wasim Al-Adawi and Firas Safi