Salem Bin Ahmed Sahab
There has been a lot of talk about the amount of revenue that will be generated by the so-called white land tax in our country. I have read many estimates and I feel they are exaggerated and not based on well-established scientific facts since, to my knowledge, no one has seen the list or the system to be used except a few stakeholders.
In one of the stories, it is said that the amount of revenue to be collected may be as much as SR250 billion. If we assume that the tariff rates will be 5 percent of the total value of white lands, then this means that the value of these lands is SR5 trillion! This is equal to twice the Kingdom’s GDP. Is that even possible? Absolutely not. The promised revenue is equal to one-third of the Kingdom’s budget, a sum that exceeds the value of all of the Kingdom’s non-oil exports.
This figure will inevitably cover any potential shortfall in the Kingdom’s budget from now on, provided that these numbers are valid, which I do not think they are.
This excessive exaggeration is our eternal problem. Take, for example, job figures that people are ranting about non-stop. Sector A will provide a million jobs, sector B will provide half a million jobs and sector C will make 3,000 jobs available. Thus combating unemployment is achieved by the stroke of a pen. We would welcome these land taxes if the money would come flowing like a river. We would welcome these astronomical numbers and they would bring joy to our hearts. If only they were true. Or if even half of them were.
People should be reasonable and balanced and avoid engaging in different forms of exaggeration. Your true friend is the one who is honest, not the one who believes you. It is not wise to raise the ceiling of ambitions to extreme heights so that people are disappointed when they finally face reality and realize that the exaggerated claims were nothing more than illusions and bad dreams.
