From 1 October 2026 Oman zero-rates VAT on three new lists — food, human medicines and medical equipment, and veterinary medicines and equipment — set by Tax Authority Decisions 225, 224 and 223/2026. The food list replaces the 2021 list outright, so any till, price label or invoice set up against the old list needs re-checking now, item by tariff code.
What changed on 1 October 2026
Three decisions of the Tax Authority, all issued on 22 September 2026 and published in Official Gazette 1667 on 27 September 2026, took effect together on 1 October 2026. Each one zero-rates goods identified by customs tariff code, and two of them replace instruments that had governed since April 2021.
| Decision | What it zero-rates | What it replaces |
|---|---|---|
| 225/2026 | Food items listed in its annex | Decision 65/2021, repealed outright |
| 224/2026 | Listed medicines and medical equipment with a Ministry of Health release permit | Decision 59/2021, repealed |
| 223/2026 | Listed veterinary medicines and equipment with a Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources release permit | Nothing — a new category |
How many items? The Tax Authority's own announcement gives no number. Muscat Daily, reporting the decisions on 27 September, counts 807 tariff entries for food, 677 for medicines and medical equipment and 62 for veterinary goods — 1,546 in all, and Oman Observer gives the same 807 for food. We could check one of those figures ourselves: the veterinary annex as published on qanoon.om runs to row 62. The food and medicine annexes are too long for the copies we could read, which break off part-way, so 807 and 677 remain press figures.
Much of the Arabic coverage says these goods are now «exempt» (معفاة) from VAT. Legally they are not. They are zero-rated: the supply is taxable at 0%, and the seller keeps the right to deduct the input tax on its costs. An exempt supply carries no VAT either, but the seller cannot recover the input tax on it.
For a shopper the shelf price looks the same either way. For a shop, an importer or a pharmacy the difference is money: zero-rating lets you keep reclaiming the VAT you pay to suppliers, landlords and service providers.
Food: Decision 225/2026
Article 1 is a single sentence: the food items specified in the annex are subject to VAT at zero percent. There is no further condition — no permit, no end-use test. Article 2 repeals Decision 65/2021, the list in force since 16 April 2021, together with anything that conflicts with the new decision, and Article 3 sets the start date of 1 October 2026.
The old list was smaller. We counted 482 items in the Decision 65/2021 annex when we wrote our VAT guide, and Decision 89/2022 added roughly 23 more, mostly animal feed. Against that, 807 entries is a substantial widening, though a count of tariff entries is not a count of products. The Authority's announcement groups the new food list as follows:
- Live animals for breeding, slaughter and milk
- Fresh, chilled, frozen and minced meat
- Fish and seafood
- Dairy products and eggs
- Fruit and vegetables, and legumes
- Coffee, tea and spices
Two things to note about that list. Oman Observer's report adds bread, water and animal feed, which the Authority's own announcement does not name. And several categories on the 2021 list — edible oils and juices among them — are not named in the 2026 announcement either. Neither omission proves anything, because the announcement summarises rather than lists; the annex decides. We could not read the full food annex, so we cannot tell you whether those products are on it. Check the code.
Medicines and medical equipment: Decision 224/2026
The medicines regime has changed shape. Decision 59/2021 set a condition rather than a list: medicines and medical equipment were zero-rated where the Ministry of Health issued a release permit (إذن بالإفراج) by customs code, and the published copy we read carries no annex of items. Decision 224/2026 keeps the permit condition and adds what was missing — an annex of tariff codes. A product is zero-rated if its code is in the annex and the Ministry of Health has issued a release permit for it.
The Authority's announcement and the press name antibiotics, vaccines, hormones, herbal and biological preparations, infant formula, special medical foods, medical solutions, oxygen, dental products and smoking-cessation aids. If you run a pharmacy or clinic, our licensing guide covers the Ministry of Health side. On the VAT side, the evidence you will want on file is the tariff code and the release permit behind each zero-rated line.
Nicotine gum, patches, sprays and similar products are on the new medicines list, so they are zero-rated for VAT when released under a Ministry of Health permit.
Separately, Tax Authority Decision 192/2026, published in Official Gazette 1660 on 9 August 2026, took them out of excise altogether: they «are not considered excise goods». Neither tax should now be built into their price.
Veterinary goods: a new category
Decision 223/2026 is the only one of the three that repeals nothing. We read its text: it has two articles, the zero rate and the start date, which fits the press reporting that veterinary goods have not had a zero rate before. Its condition mirrors the medicines decision — the item's code must be in the annex and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources must have issued a release permit.
The annex is short, 62 rows in the copy we read. It runs from vaccines, sera and antibiotics such as penicillin and streptomycin, through vitamins and minerals, to examination tools and bentonite-based animal litter.
How to check whether an item is zero-rated
Zero-rating attaches to a customs tariff code, not to a product name. The annexes list 12-digit national tariff codes, each with a description — a dairy entry in the food annex reads 040221900001, for example. The practical sequence:
- Get the tariff code for the product. For imported goods it is on the customs declaration; for local purchases, ask the supplier.
- Look the code up in the annex of the relevant decision — 225/2026 for food, 224/2026 for medicines and medical equipment, 223/2026 for veterinary goods. The texts are on qanoon.om.
- For medicines and veterinary goods, confirm that a release permit was issued by the Ministry of Health or the agriculture ministry. Without it, the code alone does not zero-rate the supply.
- If the code is not in the annex, the supply is standard-rated at 5% unless another provision of the VAT Law applies.
- Keep the evidence: the code, the annex row and, where relevant, the permit.
A product name covers several tariff codes, and the annex separates them finely. The food annex's dairy rows, for instance, distinguish milk powder by fat content and by whether sugar has been added. Only the codes in the annex are zero-rated, so a summary list of categories — including the one in this article — tells you where to look, not what the answer is.
If you cannot match a product to a code with confidence, ask the Tax Authority in writing. A written reply is evidence; a phone call is not.
What a shop has to change
None of the three decisions, and nothing the Authority published with them, tells a retailer what to do in practice. These are the places the change lands, and the rule behind each:
| Where | What changes | Rule behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Till and POS item master | Re-map every food, medicine and veterinary item to its tariff code and set 0% or 5% from the annex | Zero-rating follows the annex code |
| Shelf prices | If you display VAT-inclusive prices, a label printed at 5% now overstates the tax on a newly zero-rated item | No published display rule for general retail; restaurants must show tax-inclusive prices |
| Tax invoices | Zero-rated lines must carry 0%, not 5% | VAT Law Article 67 and our invoicing guide |
| VAT return | Report zero-rated sales in box 1(b), separately from standard-rated sales and from exports | Tax Authority VAT return filing guide |
| Input tax | Keep claiming it on costs linked to zero-rated sales | Zero-rating preserves the right to deduct |
If your POS vendor maintains your tax tables, ask when the 1 October 2026 lists were loaded and how they were mapped — by tariff code or by product category. A category-level mapping is the most likely source of errors, for the reason in the warning above. Our POS guide covers what a compliant till must do, and the same item master will carry these tax categories into e-invoicing when it becomes mandatory in 2027.
A shop whose sales are now mostly zero-rated will often find that the VAT it pays on costs is larger than the VAT it charges. That is the zero rate working as intended: the input tax remains deductible, and the return shows the difference. If you run a grocery, our grocery guide covers the licensing side.
Sales that straddle 1 October
None of the three decisions has a transitional article, and the Authority's announcement gives no guidance on invoices, returns or transition. So a supply that began before 1 October and finished after it — goods ordered and paid for in September and delivered in October, or the reverse — falls to the VAT Law's general rules on the date of supply, not to any rule made for this change. We found no Authority ruling applying those rules to the new lists. If the amounts matter, put the facts to the Authority in writing.
Imports
The two permit-based lists are built around release at customs: the Ministry of Health and the agriculture ministry issue the release permit by tariff code, which is the same code your customs declaration carries. For food, the code on the declaration is the code you check against the Decision 225/2026 annex. We found no Tax Authority statement on how the new lists are applied at the border itself; our import guide covers the customs side.
What the Authority has not published
- An item count. The 807, 677 and 62 figures come from the press. The Authority's announcement gives none.
- A consolidated, searchable list. We found the decisions as Gazette text on qanoon.om and an announcement on the Authority's portal, but no spreadsheet or lookup tool for the new annexes.
- Transitional rules for supplies that span 1 October 2026.
- Retail guidance on shelf labels, price changes or passing the saving to consumers. We found no statement on this from the Consumer Protection Authority either.
- What dropped off. Whether any item on the 2021 food list is missing from the 2026 annex is not stated anywhere we could find.
Every figure in this article comes from the decisions' text as published on qanoon.om, from the Tax Authority's announcement or from named press reports, and we say which. The one count we verified ourselves is the 62-row veterinary annex.
The 482 for the old food list is our own count of the Decision 65/2021 annex. Oman Observer reported that list at 488 at the time, and we never reconciled the difference.
What items are zero-rated for VAT in Oman from October 2026?
How do I check if a product is zero-rated in Oman?
Are medicines exempt from VAT in Oman?
Are veterinary medicines zero-rated for VAT in Oman?
How many items are on Oman's zero-rated VAT list?
What do shops in Oman need to change for the new zero-rated VAT list?
We file VAT returns and keep item masters straight for shops and pharmacies from our office in Al Ghubra. If you want a second pair of eyes on your 1 October mapping, bring your item list with its tariff codes.