The cabinet has decided to limit the importation of machinery used for the production of cigarettes and mu‘assel to established and licensed factories, and to new factories that will operate in specific production areas and zones, Ammon News reported.

New factories producing cigarettes and mu‘assel, a tobacco-based mix smoked in hookah pipes, will be able to import machinery if they obtain licences to operate in development areas, customs zones, free zones or the Aqaba Economic Zone.
Materials and other “inputs” necessary for production will also have these restrictions applied to them, the news agency said.
At the cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Omar Razzaz, it was also decided to apply the same tax treatment to tobacco products produced in the country’s development zones and intended for domestic consumption as those produced outside of development zones. The government said that there was a need for tax cells to be established in factories operating in development and free zones, which currently apply to factories located in customs areas, in order to achieve fair competition on the country’s tobacco market, Ammon News reported.