Punishment is one of the most important tools used by the State to combat crime and protect society. However, the development of modern criminal thought no longer views punishment merely as a means of deterrence, but also as a means of reform, rehabilitation, and reintegration of the convicted person into society.

What Are Alternative Penalties?

Alternative penalties, in the context of this article, refer to criminal sanctions that are not primarily based on restricting the convicted person’s liberty through imprisonment, nor are they limited to financial fines. Rather, they take other forms aimed at achieving the purposes of punishment, particularly reform, rehabilitation, and deterrence.

Examples of alternative penalties adopted by some legal systems include community service, house arrest, rehabilitation and training programmes, and other measures that may achieve the purpose of punishment without resorting, in all cases, to placing the convicted person in prison.

In this sense, an alternative penalty may be viewed as a criminal sanction imposed by a judicial judgment on a person whose responsibility for committing a crime has been established. It aims to achieve deterrence, reform, and rehabilitation while avoiding the effects that may result from custodial penalties, where the nature of the crime and the circumstances of the convicted person permit this.

Alternative Penalties in Omani Legislation

When reviewing Omani criminal legislation, it becomes clear that there are certain applications that move away from relying exclusively on custodial penalties and instead adopt treatment and reform as means of dealing with certain cases.

One example is provided by the Law on Combating Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances issued by Royal Decree 67/2026, particularly articles 41, 42, and 43.

Article 41 permits the court, in cases where a person is proven to be addicted to the use of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, to order—instead of imposing the prescribed penalty—that the person be placed in one of the rehabilitation facilities established for this purpose, or be subjected to treatment at a specialised psychological and social treatment clinic, in accordance with the programme prescribed by the psychiatrist or social specialist.

The same article also establishes conditions governing such placement. A person may not be placed in the facility if he has previously been ordered to be placed there twice pursuant to a previous judgment, or if five years have not elapsed since his release from the facility.

Article 42 complements this framework by providing that the release of a person placed in the facility following his recovery shall be by a decision of the court based on the recommendation of the committee referred to in article 68 of the Law, provided that the period of placement is not less than six months and does not exceed one year.

Conversely, if the placement proves ineffective, or the maximum prescribed period expires before the person has recovered, or he violates the obligations imposed upon him, or commits any of the offences provided for under the Law while in the facility, the matter shall be referred to the court through the Public Prosecution for the imposition of the prescribed penalty.

Treatment Instead of a Custodial Penalty

These provisions demonstrate a legislative approach towards addressing certain offences from a reformative perspective, particularly where the criminal conduct is connected to a condition requiring treatment and rehabilitation.

In cases of addiction to narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, imprisonment may not, in all cases, be the most appropriate means of achieving reform. Treatment and rehabilitation may instead be more closely connected to the underlying cause that led to the commission of the offence, within the limits prescribed by law and under the supervision of the competent authorities.

This does not mean disregarding society’s right to protection or diminishing the seriousness of offences related to drugs. Rather, it reflects an attempt to achieve a balance between protecting society from crime and addressing certain circumstances that may be connected to its commission.

From this perspective, the measures permitted by the legislator under the aforementioned articles may be regarded as forms of sanctions with a reformative nature, as they seek to treat and rehabilitate the convicted person rather than merely restrict his liberty.

Non-Initiation of Criminal Proceedings in Cases Where Treatment Is Requested

Another form worth highlighting is provided for in article 43 of the same Law, which provides—without prejudice to article 40—that no criminal proceedings shall be initiated against a person who uses narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances and voluntarily presents himself to the public authorities for treatment at a rehabilitation facility, or does so at the request of his spouse or one of his relatives, in accordance with the degrees of kinship specified by the provision.

This provision reflects an approach aimed at encouraging the user to seek treatment, rather than allowing fear of criminal prosecution to become a reason preventing him from approaching the competent authorities.

At the same time, the legislator has placed limits on this exception. It does not apply to a person who has been caught using narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, or against whom criminal proceedings have already been initiated for the offence.

Conclusion

It is clear from the foregoing that the concept of alternative penalties represents one of the modern trends in criminal policy, and that Omani legislation contains certain applications reflecting this approach, particularly in the areas of addiction treatment and rehabilitation.

The importance of alternative penalties lies in their potential to achieve a degree of balance between protecting society from crime, achieving deterrence, and providing an opportunity for reform and rehabilitation in cases where the law permits this.

Nevertheless, the application of alternative penalties must remain linked to the legal provisions and safeguards established by the legislator, as well as to the nature of each offence and the circumstances of its perpetrator. This ensures that an alternative penalty does not become a means of weakening the criminal protection of society, but rather an additional tool for achieving the objectives of justice and reform.

Abdulmalik Al-Hasani is an Omani lawyer practising litigation at Mohammed Al Azri & Mohammed Al Ajmi Law Firm, with a growing interest in criminal law. Before moving into litigation, Abdulmalik spent a year in the corporate sector at Rajab Alkathiri Law Firm, specialising in corporate legal matters. Abdulmalik is a graduate of Sultan Qaboos University.

Who pays

The law works on where you live, not on your nationality, so Omanis and foreigners are treated in exactly the same way. Under article 1, anyone who spends more than 183 days in Oman during a calendar year, whether in one stretch or on and off, is a tax resident and is taxed on their income wherever in the world it is earned. Everyone else is a non-tax resident and is taxed only on income earned inside Oman.

What counts as income

Income has a broad definition. Rather than defining income in general terms, article 7 sets out eleven sources that make up a person’s gross income, and a separate chapter then spells out what each source includes. Income covers:

• salaries
• self-employment income
• rent
• royalties
• interest
• dividends and gains on selling shares and bonds
• gains on selling real estate
• pensions and end-of-service gratuities
• prizes and gifts
• bonuses paid to members of Majlis Al-Dawla, Majlis Al-Shura, municipal councils, and boards of directors

Salary itself is defined widely to include allowances, bonuses, incentives, profit shares, and benefits in-kind such as housing, so an employment package is taxed on its full value and not only on the basic pay.

The rate and threshold

The tax is 5% of taxable income, and the key figure is 42,000 Rial Omani. The law only taxes what exceeds 42,000 Rial Omani in a year, so that amount comes off the top for everyone. It is not a band you fall into once you cross it. Someone earning 50,000 Rial Omani a year is taxed on 8,000, not on the whole 50,000, and any exemptions and costs that apply to them are deducted from that 8,000 before the 5% is calculated.

What is exempt

Article 25 lists sixteen exemptions that are deducted before the 5% is worked out, and several of them will matter to ordinary households:

• Education and health care expenses, not only for the person but for their spouse, parents, children, siblings under their care, and foster children.
• Contributions to pension and post-employment benefit schemes.
• Zakat and donations, including waqf, up to 5% of gross income.
• The interest or Islamic financing cost on a loan to build or buy a primary residence, once in a lifetime.
• Anything received by inheritance, will, or as a gift between spouses or first-degree relatives.
• Compensation of any kind, other than compensation for lost salary.

To see how this adds up, take someone earning 60,000 Rial Omani a year. The first 42,000 is not taxed, leaving 18,000. If they paid 6,000 Rial Omani in school fees for their children and 2,000 Rial Omani in medical bills for a parent that year, these are deducted, leaving 10,000 Rial Omani of taxable income and a tax bill of 500 Rial Omani.

Property, foreign income, and other exemptions

Property is handled carefully in article 20. The gain on selling a primary residence is exempt provided the sale takes place at least two years after the person notifies the Tax Authority that it is their primary residence, and the gain on selling a secondary residence, such as a farm or beach house, is exempt once in a lifetime. Both residences must be owned by a tax resident and chosen in advance by notifying the authority, and the choice of a secondary residence can only be made once. The practical lesson is that anyone who owns their home should notify the authority early, because the two-year clock only starts from that notification. Inheriting property, or receiving it as a gift from a spouse or first-degree relative, is not treated as a sale, so no tax arises at that point.

There are exemptions aimed at people working across borders, too. On top of all this, any foreign tax already paid on the same income can be deducted from the Omani tax due, up to the amount of the Omani tax.

Losses

Losses are dealt with in articles 26 and 27, and while most employees will never encounter them, they matter to anyone with a side business, a rental property, or investments. If self-employment, leasing, the sale of real estate, or the sale of shares and bonds produces a loss in a year, that loss is deducted from income from the same source, and whatever cannot be used is carried forward for up to five years. A loss from one source can never be set against income from another.

Take a person who earns a salary and also owns a flat they rent out. If, after deducting the actual expenses of the flat, the rent falls 3,000 Rial Omani short in a bad year, that 3,000 does not reduce the tax on their salary. It is carried forward and deducted from the rental income of the following year, and if that is not enough, the year after, for up to five years under article 26. If the flat keeps losing money for longer than that, what is left of the loss is simply gone.

Filing and paying

Under article 33, only a person whose gross income exceeds 42,000 Rial Omani needs to file a return, and it is filed electronically within six months of the end of the year. Someone whose only income is a salary or pension from a single employer can ask the employer to file on their behalf. In practice, most of the tax will never pass through the person’s hands. Employers must withhold the tax on salaries, pensions, and gratuities and pay it to the Tax Authority directly. Companies and government entities paying rent, dividends, and other kinds of income above 20,000 Rial Omani must also withhold part of the tax at source.

In short

For anyone earning below 42,000 Rial Omani, the new law changes nothing except that their employer will need to keep a closer eye on payroll. For those above it, the rate is low, the exemptions are wide, and most of the tax will be collected before the money reaches their account. What remains to be seen is the executive regulation, which Royal Decree 56/2025 requires the Chairman of the Tax Authority to issue, and which will set the procedures, forms, and the controls on the education, health care, and housing loan exemptions. We highly recommend that anyone earning above the threshold, and every employer, becomes familiar with the law before it enters into force in January 2028. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

Written by:

Abdulrahman Al-Farsi

Abdulrahman Al-Farsi is Legal Associate and Board Secretary at Decree. He holds an LLB from the University of Liverpool and had previously worked in an Omani law firm.

This regulation governs a specific type of children development centres that are open for any child to enter. Such centres aim to provide educational and developmental programmes and activities aimed at developing their skills and abilities. They are not specifically made for disabled children but they do provide programmes for the disabled.

The regulation sets building and safety standards, including surveillance cameras with at least three months of storage. It sets minimum qualifications for each staff role. It also fixes how many children each caregiver may look after: one caregiver for every four babies up to one year old, and one supervisor with one caregiver for every eight children aged one to two, or every twelve children aged two and above. Centres may not accept donations, and children with disabilities may make up no more than 15% of enrolment unless the ministry approves more.

These are only some of the key provisions of Ministerial Decision 378/2026, which has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Corporate income tax

Under article 112 of the Income Tax Law, every establishment, Omani company, and permanent establishment pays tax at 15% of its taxable income for each tax year. This is the tax most people mean when they say corporate tax, and it applies whatever the legal form of the company and whatever the nationality of its partners. However, there is an exception for small enterprises. An enterprise whose registered capital does not exceed 50,000 Rial Omani, whose gross income does not exceed 100,000 Rial Omani, and whose average number of employees does not exceed 15 pays a reduced rate of 3% under article 159bis 15, provided it does not carry on an excluded activity such as banking, insurance, or the extraction of natural resources.

As for deadlines, article 140 requires a company to file its income return within four months from the end of the tax year, while an enterprise on the 3% rate files within three months under article 159bis 18. Tax that is paid late attracts an additional tax of 1% for every month it remains unpaid under article 156, and under article 157 the government can pursue unpaid tax for seven years from the date it became due.

Value added tax

Where corporate income tax is charged on profits, value added tax is charged on spending. It has applied in Oman since April 2021 under the Value Added Tax Law, together with its executive regulation. The rate is 5%, and it is the tax you see added at the bottom of most bills. A business must register for VAT once the value of its supplies passes the mandatory threshold, which Tax Authority Decision 1/2021 sets at 38,500 Rial Omani, and it may register voluntarily once it passes 19,250 Rial Omani. However, not everything carries the 5%, as article 47 of the law, financial services, healthcare, education, and residential rent are exempt, and under article 51 exports, medicines, and basic food items are zero-rated.

Under Tax Authority Decision 189/2026, which amends the executive regulation, VAT invoices will have to be issued in an approved electronic format, starting on 1 April 2027 for taxpayers whose annual supplies exceed 5,000,000 Rial Omani and on 1 October 2027 for everyone else.

Withholding tax

Withholding tax is not a separate law but a part of the same Income Tax Law that governs corporate tax. Under article 52, tax is charged on certain payments made from Oman to a non-resident with no permanent establishment here, mainly royalties, fees for services and management, payments for software and research, and dividends and interest. Article 113 sets the rate at 10% of the gross amount. The duty falls on the Omani payer rather than the foreign recipient, under article 53, whoever makes the payment must deduct the tax and remit it to the Tax Authority within 14 days from the end of the month of payment.

Not every payment abroad is caught. Article 4bis 1 of the Executive Regulation of the Income Tax Law carves out a number of payments that do not count as fees for services, such as training, transporting and insuring goods, flight tickets and hotels abroad, reinsurance, and services connected with an activity or property outside Oman. It is also worth noting that the tax on dividends and interest has been suspended since January 2023 by a royal order announced by the Oman News Agency, and that a double taxation agreement with the recipient’s country may reduce or remove the 10%, so it is worth checking whether one exists before deducting.

Excise tax

Excise tax is the most targeted of the five. The Excise Tax Law taxes goods that the law describes as harmful to human health or the environment, or as luxury goods. The goods and their rates are set by Ministry of Finance Decision 112/2019. There is 100% tax on tobacco and its products, pork, alcoholic drinks, and energy drinks, and 50% tax on carbonated drinks. The tax is calculated on the retail price or the standard price published by the Tax Authority, whichever is higher, so it is built into the shelf price and most people pay it without noticing.

Two recent decisions show how the tax is being used. Under Tax Authority Decision 206/2026, from 1 October 2026 the standard price of tobacco cannot be less than 1 Rial Omani for every 20 cigarettes, which puts a floor under the tax on cheap brands. In the other direction, Tax Authority Decision 192/2026 removed products that help people quit smoking, such as nicotine gum, patches, and sprays, from the list of excise goods altogether.

Personal income tax

The Personal Income Tax Law comes into force on 1 January 2028, making Oman the first country in the Gulf to tax the income of individuals. Under article 6, a tax resident, meaning anyone who spends more than 183 days in Oman during the year, is taxed on income earned anywhere in the world, while a non-resident is taxed only on income earned in Oman. Nationality makes no difference.

The rate under article 8 is 5%, and it applies only to income above 42,000 Rial Omani a year, since the law defines net income as the amount in excess of that figure. Article 25 then lists a long set of exemptions and deductions that come off before the 5% is worked out, covering things like education, healthcare, pension contributions, and inheritance. Under article 33, only a person whose gross income exceeds 42,000 Rial Omani has to file a return, and an employee can ask their employer to file it on their behalf in certain circumstances.

Other charges

There are other charges that work like taxes even if they are not always called that. Very large multinational groups pay a top-up tax under the Law of the Top-Up Tax on Constituent Entities of Multinational Groups, which makes sure they pay at least 15% on their Omani profits. Imported goods carry customs duty under the Unified Customs Law of the GCC. Furthermore, at the local level, municipalities and governorates collect their own fees, such as the municipality fee on hotel and restaurant bills, the fee on entertainment tickets, and the fee for registering a tenancy contract.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the tax system in Oman is simpler than the number of laws suggests. A business pays 15% on its profits, or 3% if it is a small enterprise, collects 5% VAT on what it sells, deducts 10% from certain payments it makes abroad, and pays excise tax if it deals in tobacco, alcohol, or sugary drinks. From 2028, an individual earning more than 42,000 Rial Omani a year will pay 5% on the excess. Each of these taxes has its own law, its own registration and filing rules, and its own deadlines, and all of them are administered by the Tax Authority.

Written by:

Abdulrahman Al-Farsi

Abdulrahman Al-Farsi is Legal Associate and Board Secretary at Decree. He holds an LLB from the University of Liverpool and had previously worked in an Omani law firm.

The Labour Law defines remote work as “a work system in which the worker performs his work or duties using information technology and communications within the Sultanate of Oman outside the premises of the establishment whether part-time or full-time”. A key aspect of this definition is that Oman only recognises remote work performed within the country. This is confirmed by Article 2 of Ministerial Decision 523/2023, which prohibits establishments from contracting with an employee outside Oman to perform remote work for the establishment.

In essence, remote work remains subject to all the provisions of the Labour Law, including those on working hours, leave, minimum wage, contract duration and annual increments. Being a remote employee does not deprive an employee of any of their rights under the Labour Law.

On the other hand, nothing in the Labour Law or Ministerial Decision 523/2023 requires an employer to allow employees to work from home, regardless of their personal or family circumstances.

However, Ministerial Decision 523/2023 sets out a few administrative matters that employers need to consider if they choose to allow their employees to work remotely. Employers may use electronic systems to supervise and evaluate remote employees, but they cannot use monitoring methods that violate privacy or use personal data collected for non-work purposes. In certain cases, an employee may disconnect from the employer’s electronic systems.

The decision also requires employers to have written agreements for full-time remote work that address matters such as working hours, technology, performance monitoring, information security, privacy, and occupational safety and health.

It also sets out the circumstances in which an employer can require a part-time remote employee to return to the workplace, such as cybersecurity risks or serious policy breaches.

As remote work becomes increasingly popular, employers and employees are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with Ministerial Decision 523/2023. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Rusul Al-Asfoor

Rusul is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, she interned at local and international law firms in Muscat. She is interested in commercial law. She holds an LLB from Nottingham Trent University.

Normal Working Hours

Before overtime can even be discussed, it helps to know the baseline. Under article 70, a worker may not be made to work more than 8 actual hours a day or 40 hours a week, excluding rest and meal breaks, and no continuous stretch of work may exceed 6 hours. During Ramadan, working hours for Muslims drop to 6 a day or 30 a week. Any time worked beyond this baseline is what the law treats as overtime.

Consent

Article 71 makes clear that overtime is, in principle, voluntary. The employer may only require additional hours “if the interest of the work so requires,” and the employee’s written consent is needed. The combined total of regular and overtime hours can never exceed 12 hours in a single day, regardless of an agreement between the employer and employee.

Overtime Pay

Where the employee agrees, article 71 sets clear minimum rates:

• Daytime overtime: basic wage for the extra hours, plus at least 25%.
• Night-time overtime: basic wage plus at least 50%.
• Work on the weekly rest day or an official holiday: a cash amount equal to 100% of the employee’s daily basic wage, in addition to the pay for that day itself.

As an alternative to cash, the employer may instead grant time off in lieu, one day of compensatory leave for each day worked on a rest day or holiday.

When Consent Isn’t Needed

Article 72 carves out two narrow exceptions where an employer can require overtime without the employee’s consent:

1. Routine business necessities: annual stocktaking, budget preparation, closing accounts, or discount sale preparation, but this is capped at 15 days a year unless the authorities approve more.
2. Emergencies: preventing or repairing damage from an accident, avoiding the loss of perishable goods, or coping with an unusual surge in work, provided the employer notifies the relevant authority within 24 hours.

These exceptions revoke the employee of the right to refuse, so the trade-off is higher pay: 50% extra for daytime hours instead of 25%, 75% instead of 50% for night hours, and 200% of the basic wage plus the day’s own pay for rest days or holidays instead of 100% or two compensatory rest days per day worked rather than one.

Case Law in Practice

A useful clarification comes from Omani case law. In Supreme Court (Labour Circuit) Contestation 766/2017, an employee argued that his daily rest hour should count toward his overtime claim. The court disagreed, confirming that rest and meal periods are excluded from working hours by definition and cannot be counted as overtime.

You can read the Labour law in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.

According to the Basic Statute of the State, royal decrees are the instrument of lawmaking and institutional structure. They ratify and issue laws, establish or abolish specialised councils, govern local administration, appoint members of Majlis Al-Dawla, and set up the Supreme Judicial Council. Senior appointments, including deputy prime ministers, ministers, undersecretaries, senior judges, and senior military and security officers, are also made by decree, as is the appointment of a prime minister. Royal decrees are, with rare exception, published in the Official Gazette.

Royal orders, by contrast, deal with matters internal to the state rather than lawmaking. For example, article 61 leaves minister’s financial allocations, during and after their term, to a royal order. Furthermore, article 65 provides that the committee responsible for monitoring ministers’ performance is formed by royal order.

Some royal orders are published in the Official Gazette, like the granting of an award for special achievements. However, the majority are never published and remain internal to the state. This is not very effective for certain matters that the Basic Statute of the State reserves for royal orders. For example, the crown prince is appointed by royal order, as is the governance of the Royal Family Council. Due to the significance of the two matters it would have been more effective if they were governed by a public instrument like a royal decree.

In short, watch for decrees when the law changes or an institution is restructured, and orders for royal appointments or internal administration, some published and some not. Neither term is interchangeable with the other, and the gaps between them are worth keeping in mind when reading Omani legislation more broadly.

Everyone is recommended to read the Basic Statute of the State. It is available in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.

Human rights are rights that are available to everyone broadly because they are human. For example, article 18 of the Basic Statute of the State provides that life and dignity are rights of every human, while article 22 provides that every human has a right to security of life. Other human rights include personal freedom in article 23 which is within the provisions of the law. Article 25 also protects individuals from physical or mental torture, or degrading treatment.

On the other hand, citizen rights are rights connected to the Omani citizenship. For example, article 20 protects citizens from being deported, exiled, or prohibited from returning to Oman. Additionally, article 15 further guarantees healthcare for citizens, social security services and aid in emergency, illness, incapacity, and old age in the manner prescribed by the law. Article 16 also guarantees education as a right for every Omani citizen, aiming to develop their knowledge, abilities, and skills.

It is worth noting that non-citizens are not left out of the Basic Statute of the State. Under article 42 every person present in Oman lawfully is granted protection of their person and property under the law, in return for a duty to abide by Omani legislation, values, and respect its traditions.

Moreover, the Sultanate has also ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2020, which extends rights like health and education to everyone, not just citizens, although certain legal exceptions may exist. This causes some tension with articles 15 and 16 of the Basic Statute of the State, which frame healthcare, social security, and education specifically as citizen rights. Furthermore, article 9 of the ICESCR recognises the right of every human to social security. This is significant when considering article 15 of the Basic Statute of the State, which specifically refers to social security for Omani citizens.

Another tension could be seen regarding the right to education. Article 16 of the Basic Statute of the State recognises education as a right limited to citizens. However, Oman is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognises the right of every child to education despite citizenship. This creates an interesting legal question on whether the wording of the Basic Statute of the State truly reflects Oman’s international obligations.  

However, article 93 provides an important connection between domestic law and international treaties, as it gives ratified treaties the force of law. This means that Oman’s international obligations can work alongside the rights and protections provided under the Basic Statute of the State.

In conclusion, the distinction between human rights and citizen rights creates an interesting question, and this article demonstrated that the protection of human rights in Oman involves balancing national legislation with international obligations.

It is highly recommended for everyone to make themselves familiar with both categories of rights, and understand how they are protected in the Sultanate of Oman. You can read the Basic Statute of the State in full at the link below:

Written by:

Rusul Al-Asfoor

Rusul is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, she interned at local and international law firms in Muscat. She is interested in commercial law. She holds an LLB from Nottingham Trent University.

A key substantive change can be seen in article 5bis which allows a controller to process its own staff data, including biometric data such as fingerprints, without the need to obtain a permit from the ministry.

Article 14 grants data subjects a new right to object to decisions made through automated processing, for example, filtering of CVs for job applications, and to require the controller to bring in a human to review the decision.

Moreover, article 15 imposes a new obligation on controllers and processors to erase personal data as soon as its processing purpose ends, subject to narrow exceptions, like an existing dispute or a legal obligation.

Article 22 strengthens consent requirements by requiring explicit consent for marketing purposes, and article 10 provides a new list of specifications for the request for consent to process personal data.

The amendment includes several other substantive changes relating to definitions, territorial scope, consent, direct marketing, and fines.

This amendment has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Rusul Al-Asfoor

Rusul is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, she interned at local and international law firms in Muscat. She is interested in commercial law. She holds an LLB from Nottingham Trent University.

Under the previous law, auctions were only mandatory for concession agreements, and ordinary prospecting and exploitation licences could be granted after the ministry simply verified the applicant’s technical and financial standing. Now, prospecting and exploitation licences must not be granted except by way of auction, though the ministry retains a narrow exception allowing it to assign some mining sites directly.

The previous law required a concession to run for 20 to 30 years, cover at least 5 square kilometres, and be backed by both an economic feasibility study and an environmental impact assessment before it could be granted. The amended law drops all four of these requirements, leaving only the applicant’s technical competence and financial solvency, and the need to specify technical and financial supervision arrangements for the site.

Penalties for illegal extraction have also been simplified. Before, a licensee who deliberately mined outside their own licensed limits actually faced a tougher punishment than someone with no licence at all: imprisonment plus a fine of 50,000 to 150,000 Rial Omani, or just one of the two. Now both offences carry the same fine, 20,000 to 100,000 Rial Omani, but imprisonment of one to three years is compulsory.

These are only some of the key changes made by Royal Decree 69/2026, which enters into force today. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.