The Council of Ministers approved in March 2015 the recommendation of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs to impose fees on white land within the urban area of cities, governorates and centers, and tasked the Council of Economic and Development Affairs to prepare the mechanisms and organizational arrangements for this, and submit what is reached to the Council of Ministers in preparation for referring it to the Shura Council to complete the statutory procedures in this regard urgently

On October 19, 2015, the Council of Ministers directed to refer the draft regulatory arrangements for imposing fees on white lands to the Shura Council for study, in accordance with its system, and to complete the statutory procedures within 30 days.

On November 17, 2015, the Shura Council approved the draft fees after deciding to transform the "Draft Regulatory Arrangements for White Land Fees" into the "Draft White Land Fees System".

On November 17, 2015, the Shura Council approved the draft fees.

Then the Saudi Council of Ministers approved the White Land Fees System on November 23, 2015, with the expectation that it will be implemented next June, 6 months after its official publication, as the Ministry of Housing had submitted the mechanism for applying fees on white lands to the Supreme Council on April 1.

Registering land on the website within 6 months

The account added in its tweets on Twitter that a website for white lands will be launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Commerce and Investment and the National Information Center of the Ministry of Interior, where every owner of land included in the application of fees must enter the website after the announcement and register his land within a period not exceeding 6 months from the announcement, and the website will provide the evaluation mechanism for the subject lands and electronic billing and collection service soon.

The account added in its tweets on Twitter that a website for white lands will be launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Commerce and Investment and the National Information Center of the Ministry of Interior.

White Land Boundaries

The Ministry of Housing revealed that the white lands concerned with the fee system are every open land intended for residential or commercial residential use, within the boundaries of the urban range, which it defined on its official Twitter account as the lines shown on the maps of the urban range documents that indicate the different stages of urban development, the limit of development protection and represent the appropriate boundaries for settling urban activities and accommodating urban growth within a specific period of time.

The Ministry of Housing revealed the white lands concerned with the fee system.

Decisions to determine the land subject

The Minister of Housing will issue, within a period not exceeding two months from the date of expiration of the six-month deadline for submitting documents and data related to the land, decisions identifying the lands subject to the fee, including the data specified in the second paragraph of Article 20 of the Regulations. If the deadline passes without the taxpayer (landowner) submitting the documents and data related to his land, the Minister will issue the decision on this land based on the data available to the Ministry about the land, and inform the taxpayer of the decision by publishing it in the Official Gazette, and the date of publishing the decision in this case shall be the date of payment of the fee.

Stages of implementation of the system

The executive regulations of the White Land Fees System divided the lands subject to the system into five stages according to their size as follows:

- The first stage: Undeveloped land with an area of 500,000 square meters and more.

- Phase II: Undeveloped land with an area of 250,000 square meters and more.

- Phase II: Undeveloped land with an area of 250,000 square meters and more

- Phase III: Undeveloped land with an area of 100,000 square meters and more.

- Phase IV: Undeveloped land with an area of 40,000 square meters and more.

- Fifth phase: Undeveloped land with an area of 10,000 square meters and more.

White Land Standards and Conditions

The land is subject to the application of the fee when it meets all of the following criteria: It must be a vacant land. It must be within the urban area. It must be residential or commercial residential according to the plan approved for the city by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, and it must be within the categories determined by the Ministry according to the targeted categories as indicated in Article 9 of this regulation.

Land value estimation

The value of the land is assessed by determining the services and facilities, and a value - in the form of a percentage - is determined for each service or facility according to the necessity of the facility or service for housing, and a basic value is determined for the land according to the criteria stipulated in these regulations, and the value of the coefficient specified for the absence of each service or facility is deducted from the basic value, and the value of the coefficient is deducted from the basic value. The value of the coefficient does not change with the change of the city or the location of the land, and the value of the coefficient may be adjusted at each annual review conducted by the Ministry in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the regulation.

Collection of fees

The fee is collected according to the following: The due date of the fee is the date on which the taxpayer is informed of the decision and the amount of the fee due. The taxpayer may pay the value of the fee within a period not exceeding one year from the date of the decision, and the Hijri calendar is used for the purpose of determining the length of the year, and in case the land subject to the fee is mortgaged and registered in the name of the mortgagor. Failure to pay the fee does not affect the right of the owner of the land to dispose of or develop it, except as stipulated in the regulation, and it is not permissible to exempt from the fee or postpone its collection except in accordance with the provisions of the state revenue system, and fees and fines are collected through electronic messages

Fines for violators and evaders

Financial penalties will be imposed for violators of the provisions of the White Land Law, with a financial fine not exceeding the amount of the fee due on his land, without prejudice to his obligation to pay the due fee. The ministry has set the value of the fees at 2.5% of the value of the land.

The ministry has set the value of the fees at 2.5% of the value of the land.