Jordanian royal cars to pay taxes

The Jordanian dailies issued on Wednesday said that King Abdullah II has asked the government of Prime Minister Abdul Raouf al-Rawabdeh to stop exempting cars imported for the royal palace from tax fees.

The dailies added that the king addressed his request in a message in which he said that equality must be maintained among all citizens and "to collect fees from any car owned by the royal palace, with the objective of increasing the kingdom's income and improve its revenues so as to pay its foreign debts," estimated at more than US $7 billion.

The papers added that number of cars registered as serving the royal palaces in Jordan exceeds 10,000.