The impact of Saudi Arabia's VAT increase on Islamic financial institutions

Value added tax ("VAT") was pioneered by the European Union, but is gradually spreading worldwide. Saudi Arabia recently tripled its rate of VAT. While VAT in Saudi Arabia is only a couple of years old, the Saudi VAT law follows widespread international precedent by also exempting financial services. Accordingly, all financial institutions will suffer a hit to their profit and loss account. All purchases of goods and services which are subject to VAT increase in cost by 9.5%. This may lead to an increase in bad debts in the Saudi banking sector. Islamic financial services are not expected to suffer more (or less) than conventional financial services.