A thousand Jordanians took to the streets of Amman on Thursday (December 13th) to protest an income tax law adopted in November under an austerity programme aimed at reducing public debt, AFP reported.
The protesters gathered near Prime Minister Omar Razzaz's office, which was cordoned off by security forces.
Jordanian lawmakers on November 18th approved an International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed income tax bill after making amendments to a controversial draft law that sparked a week of angry protests in June.
The original bill, which the government approved in June, raised taxes for employees by at least 5%, and on companies by between 20 and 40%.
These measures were left unchanged in the amended version.
The revised bill raises the threshold for households to pay income tax to 20,000 Jordanian dinars ($28,000) from a previous ceiling of 18,000 ($25,400) for 2019.
The amended legislation also introduced exemptions of up to 2,000 dinars ($2,820) per family for basic expenses such as education and health, and 1,000 dinars ($1,410) per single person, if receipts are provided.
