Kuwait’s cabinet clears the GCC excise tax: soft drinks 50%, energy drinks and tobacco 100%
The draft decree-law now goes to the Amir, and no start date has been announced yet.
Kuwait’s Council of Ministers on Tuesday 27 October 2026 approved a draft decree-law adopting the unified excise tax agreement of the Gulf Cooperation Council, together with its amending annex, and sent it to His Highness the Amir. An excise tax is a levy on specific goods considered harmful to health or the environment, plus some luxury goods, charged at different rates per product.
What is covered
- Energy drinks: 100%.
- Tobacco and tobacco products: 100%.
- Carbonated soft drinks: 50%.
- Sweetened drinks: a rate that depends on how much sugar they contain.
Under the agreement, the list of goods and their rates is set and amended by the GCC’s Financial and Economic Cooperation Committee, so the list can change later by a Gulf-level decision rather than a Kuwaiti one.
What is still unknown
No start date has been announced. A decree-law takes effect once it is issued by the Amir and published in the official gazette, Kuwait Al-Youm; the effective date and the collecting authority will be set there or in its executive regulations. Until then, nothing changes at the till.
Photo: a glass of cola with ice and a slice of lemon, illustrative. Photo by pic_p_ter, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Council of Ministers statement on its 27 October 2026 meeting; the list of goods and rates as reported by Al-Qabas, 27 October 2026.
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