The Revenues Development Department at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) organized a workshop on “Principles and Standards of Imposing, Amending and Exempting Federal Government Fees†which was attended by a large number of UAE ministries and federal bodies. The workshop is part of MoF initiatives to train and develop the performance of ministries and federal government employees working with financial affairs.
The workshop aims to explaining Ministerial Decree No.(1) of 2011 issued by HE Minister of State for Financial Affairs regarding the principles and criteria for imposing and amending fees and exemptions in the federal government. The decree is designed to regulate the procedures for imposing, amending and exempting fees. The workshop also aims to develop employee competence and promote knowledge related to basic fees concepts.
The workshop explained the importance of imposing fees and implementing resolutions issued by competent authorities of the federal government. The workshop also identified steps of imposing and amending fees for the sake of a government institution’s customers. The workshop identified charges, fees, revenues and fines levied by the federal government in return for services performed.
It also discussed the definition of exemptions and exempt individuals or federal authorities for all or some of the charges and levies, dues or fees required by the government. The workshop clarified that federal ministry and authority requests for imposing fees need to go through a phase of preparing the necessary studies before submitting these requests to the government.
MoF has developed principles and standards for imposing measured and logical fees. These include identifying reasons for requesting the imposition or amendment of fees and comparing fees to be imposed or amended with the same fees in countries similar to the UAE in political, economic and social aspects. The standards include clarifying the overlap in fees to be imposed or amended with other fees, if found, by federal ministries or agencies or local departments in the various emirates. The standards also include services classification and pricing in accordance with fees imposed or amended for each service. It clarified the human resources and IT abilities of the federal agency to collect fees it wants to impose or amend and urged adopting mechanisms for predicting fee revenues.
“This workshop is part of a series of workshops and courses organized by MoF to develop human capital and their participation in financial policies. We introduced the basic concepts and standards of imposing and amending fees to help employees develop outstanding competence in this field,†Faisal Al Mansouri, Director of Revenues Development Department at MoF, said.
“These workshops aim at unifying mechanisms of imposing and amending fees and exemptions. MoF will continue to organize similar workshops to develop government employees and secure balanced and sustainable developmentâ€, Al Mansouri added.
