Oman amends classification of SMEs according to workforce, revenues

Oman has amended the classification of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in accordance with their workforce and revenues, Times of Oman reported.

A micro establishment shall have 1-10 workers and an annual revenues less than OMR150,000; a small establishment shall have 11-50 workers and an annual revenue ranging between OMR150,000-1,250,000; a medium establishment shall have 51-150 workers and annual revenue ranging between OMR1,250,000-5m.

The new directives were issued according to a ministerial decision passed by Dr. Ali bin Masoud al-Sunaidi, Minister of Commerce and Industry and board chairman of Riyada, the sultanate’s arm for development of small and medium enterprises.

According to an earlier classification, a micro-establishment had 1-5 workers with less than OMR100,000 of revenue; small establishment had 6-25 workers with OMR100,000-500,000 of revenue while medium establishment had 26-99 workers with revenues from OMR500,000 to less than OMR3m.

The amendment has taken into consideration, similar classifications of such establishments across GCC states and growth prospects in the sultanate.

The Riyada database shows that the number of small and medium establishments stood at 44,000.