Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Saudi Council of Ministers has approved on Tuesday the calculation of duration in all official procedures and transactions on the basis of the Gregorian calendar. However, there will be an exception to all those related to the provisions of Islamic Shariah where the calculation of periods is based on the Hijri date.

There is also an exemption from this for what explicitly states that its duration is calculated on the basis of the Hijri date. The decision was taken by the weekly session of the Cabinet, chaired by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.

It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia earlier started implementing consideration of duration on the basis of the Gregorian calendar in some of the official and legal activities. The Kingdom is using the Hijri calendar as the first official calendar, concurrently with the Gregorian as a second calendar. The Hirji calendar is shorter than the Gregorian calendar by 11 or 12 days in a year.