The General Secretariat of Public Revenue is carrying spot checks at 1,545 hotels being investigated for their bookings and cost of night stays. The tax inspectors appear disguised as customers to ensure that hotel fees are aligned to their claims on their websites and checking the amount of visitors to ensure that there are no tax violations.

The tax inspectors are calling hotels to check on whether the hotels are fully booked and create a rough estimation on how much tax should be yielded. If there is a huge difference between the estimated VAT and actual VAT payments, there will be further spot checks made to ensure that the receipt books are up-to-date and accurate.

The investigation has already begun and will be completed by the end of August. The Ministry of Tourism is collaborating with tax authorities by selecting 1,545 hotels from a list of 10,114 hotels, generated via a Risk Analysis system. The criteria in which the Risk Analysis system plucked out hotels included the popularity of the travel destination where the hotels were located, the category of each establishment, the number of rooms and the number of staff engaged by the hotels.

The first stage of the investigation runs from July 16 until the end of July. The second is from August 1-15 followed by the final investigation from August 16-31.