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Omani law firm AMJ, Barristers & Legal Consultants, supported by KPMG, has successfully advised and represented an ENGIE subsidiary on a significant tax case before the Supreme Court of Oman.

The Court has ruled in favour of Al Rusail Power Co, a subsidiary of SMN Power Holding SAOG and ENGIE, in a judgment overturning decisions of the revenue authorities and the lower courts which had rejected Rusail Power’s tax-returns claim that its power-purchase agreement (PPA) with the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company is a finance lease rather than operating lease pursuant to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) developed by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Of 150 countries surveyed in 2017, 140—including the Sultanate of Oman—had made a public commitment to IFRS as the single set of global accounting standards. This case is significant as the disallowance decisions in respect of Rusail Power’s tax filings (by the Secretariat General for Taxation, the Income Tax Committee, the Primary Court and the Appeal Court), in erroneously determining the PPA to be an operating lease rather than a finance lease, had put that commitment squarely in doubt. The Supreme Court’s judgment ensures that Oman is not an outlier from IFRS and thereby reaffirms the Sultanate’s commitment to a single set of high-quality global accounting standards.

AMJ, Barristers & Legal Consultants represented Rusail Power in the Primary Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court, supported by KPMG. AMJ is one of the largest law firms in Oman, in practice for 35 years. In addition to full services in tax, litigation, arbitration, banking, Islamic finance, corporate, capital markets, energy and projects, AMJ has been at the forefront of legal developments regulating the power, water and electricity sectors in Oman.

Please contact AMJ managing partner Mansoor Malik on +968 2482 9226 or at mansoor.malik@amjoman.com if you would like to discuss your tax dispute or other litigation or advice requirements.