If you have a commercial registration with an import or export activity on it, the thing standing between you and your first shipment is a Bayan account — not a customs code, a customs licence, or an importer number. None of those exist in Oman as separate documents.
There is no Omani customs code
We searched customs.gov.om, gov.om and oman.om for the term. It does not appear on any of them. There is no page describing how to apply for one, no fee for one, and no processing time for one, because the Directorate General of Customs does not issue such a thing.
The concept is imported from the UAE, where the federal and emirate customs authorities do issue a distinct importer code to a business before it can trade. Oman built its system differently. Your commercial registration number is the identifier, and Bayan pulls your CR data directly — the Directorate's own guidance notes that CR data updates automatically when you renew, which is only possible because the CR is the key.
Read any of the consultancy pages selling a customs code and the five steps turn out to be: confirm your CR and activities, keep your Chamber of Commerce membership current, create a Bayan account, optionally appoint a broker, and wait for activation.
That is a description of Bayan registration under a borrowed label. One such page even concedes that the code is typically issued as part of your Bayan registration and quotes no fee and no timeframe for it, which is what you would expect of a document that is not separately issued.
There is nothing wrong with the underlying steps. There is something wrong with paying a fee to obtain a thing that has no fee.
Who runs customs in Oman
The Directorate General of Customs is a directorate of the Royal Oman Police, not of a ministry. This surprises people, and it matters when you are trying to work out which counter to stand at. Its portal is customs.gov.om and it publishes a single contact line, +968 22848232 and info@customs.gov.om, for the whole directorate.
Bayan is the customs single window. Declarations, other agencies' permits, and payment all pass through it. The Directorate reported roughly 622,091 declarations in the first half of 2025 — around 375,000 imports and 222,000 exports — plus 70,727 permits.
Registering on Bayan
Registration is per person and per entity, and the fees are small. What takes time is having the prerequisites lined up: an activated civil ID, a live CR carrying the right activity, and Chamber of Commerce membership if you are also applying for a clearance licence.
- Authenticate at customs.gov.om using your civil card or PKI credentials.
- Register the company; Bayan reads your commercial registration and keeps it in step with renewals.
- Register each individual who will use the system, including your declaration officers.
- Add any branches that will clear goods in their own right.
- File declarations, attach documents, and pay — all inside Bayan.
| What you are paying for | Fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bayan user registration, per person | OMR 10 | Oman Customs |
| Company branch registration in Bayan | OMR 20 | Oman Customs |
| Each additional authorised user on a branch | OMR 10 | Oman Customs |
| Customs declaration — company | OMR 15 | Oman Customs |
| Customs declaration — individual | OMR 5 | Oman Customs |
One thing to be aware of when you read the Directorate's own pages: the Bayan registration page still requires companies to be registered at the Ministry of Manpower. That ministry ceased to exist in the 2020 restructuring and its functions moved to the Ministry of Labour. The page has not been updated. It is a good reminder that official does not always mean current.
You are not required to use a clearing agent
This is the second thing most guides get wrong. Under Article 110 of the Common Customs Law of the GCC States, which is the law Oman applies, a goods declaration is accepted from either the owners of the goods or their authorised representatives, or licensed customs brokers. The two routes sit side by side in the same article.
The Directorate's own declaration page says the same thing in plainer language: declarations may be submitted by all beneficiaries and users of the Bayan system. If you are registered, you can file.
Nothing in the Common Customs Law or on the Directorate's pages obliges an importer to appoint a licensed clearance office for its own goods.
Most established importers still use one, because brokers know which permits a given HS code will trigger and hold the relationships at each port. That is an argument about competence and speed. It is not a compliance argument, and you should not be sold it as one.
If you want to be the clearing agent
Licensing clearance offices is the Directorate General of Customs' own function, not the Ministry of Commerce's. Article 109 of the Common Customs Law gives citizens of the GCC states, natural or legal persons, the right to practise customs clearance on obtaining a licence, and Article 113 leaves the licensing conditions to the Director General. The published Omani conditions are:
- Capital wholly owned by Omani citizens or GCC nationals.
- Registration in the commercial register and membership of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with customs clearance listed among the activities.
- A financial deposit as a licence guarantee, refundable if the office closes, followed by the licence fee after preliminary approval.
- A non-conviction certificate for the legal representative.
- A valid lease for the office and a signboard matching the commercial register, both checked on inspection.
- The licence runs for two years.
Separately, the individual who files as a broker needs a customs clearance course certificate and a Bayan system course certificate, social insurance registration and a non-conviction certificate. Broker transfer between employers costs OMR 30; a company customs ID is OMR 100 and an establishment customs ID is OMR 30.
The Arabic clause reads, in full: إيداع مبلغ مالي كضمان ترخيص المزاولة نشاط التخليص الجمركي قابل للاسترجاع في حالة إغلاق المكتب دفع رسوم ترخيص مزاولة نشاط التخليص الجمركي بعد الموافقة المبدئية مقدار (2500) ريال للمنفذ إلى (10000) ألف ريال لجميع المنافذ ورسوم ترخيص (500) ريال للمؤسسات الفردية و (1000) ريال للشركات ساري المفعول لمدة سنتين
It is unpunctuated, and it supports two readings. On the first, the refundable deposit is OMR 2,500 for one port rising to OMR 10,000 for all ports, and the licence fee is OMR 500 for a sole establishment or OMR 1,000 for a company. On the second, all four figures are licence fees. The English version of the same page puts all four under one heading and does not choose either.
The Directorate has not disambiguated this in writing anywhere we could find. Budget for the first reading, which is the more natural one, and confirm at the counter before you transfer anything.
Clearance offices are closed to foreign investment
If you are a foreign investor reading the clearance-licence conditions and wondering whether the GCC-ownership rule is negotiable, it is not, and there is a second lock on the same door. Ministerial Decision 209/2020, dated 8 December 2020, lists the activities closed to foreign investment. Item 48 is customs clearance offices, ISIC 522901. Item 47 is loading and unloading of goods, ISIC 522401.
That list has been amended twice since. Ministerial Decision 364/2023 removed two entries and added others, including vehicle towing and recovery. Ministerial Decision 435/2024, dated 29 August 2024, added a further 28 activities — none of them transport or logistics — bringing the list to 123 activities in total.
So a foreign-owned company can import and export freely under its own CR and its own Bayan account. What it cannot do is set up as a clearance office and file on behalf of others.
Customs duty: what you actually pay
Oman applies the GCC common external tariff. The WTO's Trade Policy Review of Oman puts the simple average applied MFN tariff at 5.5%, unchanged across the 2008, 2014 and current reviews, with 87.1% of tariff lines at 5% and 11.1% duty-free. All lines are ad valorem except twenty tobacco lines carrying a mixed tariff.
| Goods | Rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Most goods — 87.1% of tariff lines | 5% | GCC common external tariff |
| Duty-free lines — 11.1% of the tariff | 0% | GCC common external tariff |
| Tobacco | 100% | Mixed tariff, 20 lines |
| Alcoholic beverages | 100% | Omani national tariff |
| Pork products | 100% | Omani national tariff |
The distinction in the last two rows is worth holding on to. The WTO records alcohol and pork at 100% as national tariff lines, explicitly not part of the GCC common external tariff. They are Oman's own, which is why they do not appear in generic Gulf tariff summaries.
Duty is charged on the CIF value — cost, insurance and freight. Article 10 of the Common Customs Law allows ad valorem, specific, or combined rates, and the valuation rules take the price actually paid or payable, on CIF principles.
The GCC Unified Tariff moved HS codes from eight digits to twelve. Alvarez & Marsal report that the first eight digits and the duty rates attached to them are unchanged, four subcodes were added to most entries, unchanged codes simply gained 0000, and a new Chapter 99 covers hazardous materials.
This is a classification change, not a rate change. The same firm notes that the new tariff document is available only in Arabic from Oman Customs, and cites no circular or decision number for it. We could not locate an English schedule at all.
VAT and excise on imports
Import VAT is 5% of the taxable value, and it is collected by the Directorate General of Customs through Bayan at the point of import. The Oman Tax Authority's own guide puts it plainly: VAT on import is normally due at the same time as customs duties. The legal basis is Royal Decree 121/2020, with Tax Authority Decision 53/2021 as amended by Decision 456/2022.
There is a deferral scheme worth knowing about if you import regularly. A VAT-registered taxpayer may apply to defer import VAT until its VAT return rather than paying at the border. The conditions are registration compliance, application at least one month before the import, and provision of financial guarantees.
- Zero-rated or exempt on import — diplomatic goods, military supplies, personal effects, returned goods and charitable donations.
- Exports zero-rated where the goods leave GCC territory within 90 days of supply, evidenced by commercial and customs declarations.
- Goods in customs suspension are normally zero-rated.
- Excise, where it applies, sits on top: tobacco, energy drinks and electronic smoking devices and liquids at 100%, soft drinks at 50%.
The Oman Tax Authority's published rate page lists excise on tobacco, energy drinks, electronic smoking products and soft drinks. It does not list pork or alcohol at all. Various commentaries put both at 100% excise; we could not confirm any figure for them on an Omani government page.
Keep this separate from the 100% customs duty the WTO records on those same goods. Those are two different charges levied under two different instruments. If you are modelling a landed cost for alcohol or pork, do not merge them, and do not treat any excise figure you find as verified.
Free zones: what happens when goods enter the mainland
Goods coming into a free zone or duty-free shop are straightforward. Article 78 of the Common Customs Law admits foreign goods of any kind or origin without customs duties or taxes. Article 80 excludes narcotics, radioactive materials and goods infringing intellectual property rights.
Coming out is the part that catches people. Article 85 is the operative rule and it is unforgiving: goods taken out of the free zones into the customs territory are treated as foreign goods — expressly, even where they contain local materials. Full duty applies on entry to the mainland. Storing in a zone defers duty; it does not avoid it.
Until 2025 you could point at Article 20 of Oman's Free Zones Law for this rule. You no longer can. Royal Decree 38/2025, issued 7 April 2025 and in force from 13 April 2025, promulgated a new Special Economic Zones and Free Zones Law and its Article Four repeals Royal Decree 56/2002 outright.
The new law does not replace the rule. We read it specifically for this: it contains no article governing goods moving from a zone into the customs territory. Article 28 exempts machinery, equipment, spare parts and raw materials entering the zone, and Article 29 confirms products exported from the zone outside Oman carry no duty — but there is nothing on the inward leg.
So the rule now rests on Article 85 of the Common Customs Law, plus Article Three of RD 38/2025, which keeps existing regulations in force until new executive regulations issue. Any guide still citing RD 56/2002 for this is citing a repealed law. Any guide citing RD 38/2025 for it is citing an article that is not there.
Two further points on RD 38/2025. Article Two preserves the benefits, incentives and exemptions of operators already established in the existing free zones and the Duqm special economic zone until their terms expire, so nothing was pulled from under anyone. And Royal Decree 79/2013 and Royal Decree 105/2020 are not among the instruments repealed — only RD 56/2002 is named. Article Three required executive regulations within one year; that year has passed and we could not find them published.
Restricted goods and the authority that signs them off
Article 24 of the Common Customs Law sets the mechanism: prohibited goods do not move at all, and restricted goods move only with the approval of the competent authority. Oman does not publish a consolidated list of what falls into which category. What it does publish is the set of permits available in Bayan, organised by issuing authority — and that list, reproduced below, is the closest thing to an official Omani enumeration of controlled goods.
| Issuing authority | Goods requiring a permit |
|---|---|
| ROP — Inquiries and Criminal Investigation | Personal weapons, ammunition for licensed stores, arms for government agencies, alcoholic beverages |
| ROP — General Directorate of Operations | Night-vision equipment, aerial drones, dual-use products, armoured cars |
| ROP — Special Task Force | Ammonium nitrate, explosives, explosives in transit, fireworks |
| Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance | Fire safety equipment |
| Environment Authority — Chemicals and Waste | Export of chemicals, export of hazardous waste under the Basel Convention |
| Environment Authority — Biological Diversity | Import, export and re-export of wild species |
| Environment Authority — Radiation Protection | Radioactive materials for industrial, commercial or medical use, and their re-export |
| MOCIIP — Standards and Metrology | Paints, LPG cylinders, lead-acid batteries, tobacco products |
| MOCIIP — Commercial Affairs | Petroleum products |
Beyond that table, the US commercial guide for Oman records that seeds, plants and plant products need SPS certificates and prior permission from the Directorate General of Agricultural Development; animal products need a health certificate and an import permit; meat needs halal certification; and cosmetics need third-party conformity certification and labelling to GSO 1943. Separately, Oman has notified the WTO that it applies no import licensing procedures at all — the controls are permit-based, not licence-based. The Directorate reports average import clearance time down to seven hours.
What Oman Customs does not publish
These gaps are worth stating outright, because a guide that quietly fills them with numbers is guessing:
- No tariff schedule. Duty rates appear nowhere on customs.gov.om — not on the homepage, the business services index, the FAQ, or the duty calculation page, which is only a front end to a lookup tool. The 5% and 5.5% figures in this article come from the WTO, not from an Omani government page.
- No English tariff at all. The 2025 GCC Unified Tariff is published in Arabic only.
- No consolidated prohibited-goods list in English. The traveller pages cover alcohol allowances and little else.
- No published timeframe for the clearance-office licence, or for most Bayan procedural services.
- No Authorized Economic Operator detail. The AEO page renders navigation only — no eligibility, benefits, fees or validity.
- The main customs clearance page is unreachable, returning a rejected-URL error from the site's own firewall.
You will find guides telling you that goods manufactured in an Omani free zone acquire national origin, and duty-free access to the mainland or to the rest of the GCC, once local value added reaches 40%.
We looked for an Omani source for that threshold and found none. Every result was Emirati or Saudi — the UAE ministry's value-added certificate, Saudi national rules of origin. Do not plan around a 40% figure as though it were Omani law.
This is the general shape of the problem with Gulf content. Searching for an Oman prohibited-goods list returns Dubai Customs and the Saudi authority on the first page; searching the Arabic tariff returns Sharjah Customs. If a page you are reading mentions Dubai Customs, Mirsal, the DED or Jebel Ali, treat everything on it as unverified for Oman.
Do I need a customs code to import into Oman?
How much does it cost to register on Bayan?
Do I have to use a customs clearing agent in Oman?
Can a foreigner open a customs clearance office in Oman?
How much customs duty do you pay on imports into Oman?
Do you pay duty on goods moving from an Omani free zone into the mainland?
Getting it done
In practice the sequence is short: get the import or export activity onto your CR, register the company and your users on Bayan, and file. If you would rather not deal with the Bayan registration, the branch and user set-up, or the permit chase for a restricted HS code, our office in Al Ghubra handles that paperwork. We will not sell you a customs code.