"ملف F/2 II مراسلات متنوّعة مع بلدية المنامة" [و‎‎٣‎٩] (٤٦٤/٧٧)

GOVERNMENT OF BAHRAI
Bahrain, June 21, 1935
Dear Cole,
Before Shaikh Abdullah bin T lsa, in his
capacity as acting President of Manamah Muni
cipal Council and permanent President in Muhara^,
discusses with you the question of municipal
taxation, I should like to point out some facts
about the present system.
2. The Bahrain government and the Agency
have persistently urged on the municipalities
the necessity for their being as much as pos
sible self-supporting institutions. The coun
cils themselves would prefer to avoid the trouble
of collecting municipal taxes by persuading the
government to impose additional customs taxes
in order to provide money for them. The govern
ment does not approve of these suggestions which
are obviously unsuitable. It would be unfair
to impose any general tax which was to benefit
only the two municipalities. The government
does however pay a subsidy of Rs 1,000/- per
month to each of the municipalities, it used to
pay exactly double the present amount.
3. I suppose there is no civilized country
in the world where taxation is lower than in
Bahrain. There is no income tax, land tax, date
tax, ashur or zikat. The only taxation is the
customs duty and the house and shop tax levied
by the municipalities inside their areas. This