New Delhi: India has raised with the Saudi government the issue of the dependent tax, imposed on expatriates who have dependents living there, from July 1, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
Replying to a written question, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar maintained that this is not an India-specific issue. However, it needs to be seen whether the annual increase in tax would adversely impact the resident Indian families, he added.
“The issue has been officially raised with a visiting Saudi delegation on July 11 (last week),” he said while noting that according to initial feedback from Indian mission, there is no indication of any increase in the families returning to India on account of the dependent tax.
Akbar also noted that the resident Indian community in Saudi Arabia has also marginally increased during the last one year and is estimated at 3.03 million in March.
Beginning July 1, the Saudi government has imposed the tax at the rate of Saudi Riyal (SR) 100 (Rs 1,700 approx) per month on each dependent, he said.
The dependent tax will be increased to SR 200 in 2018, SR 300 in 2019 and SR 400 in 2020 per dependent member of the expatriate family, Akbar added.
Replying to a separate question, Akbar said there were 220 complaints against unregistered agents received till June 30 and were referred to the state governments.
–PTI