The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is planning to introduce up to 100 percent tax on luxury goods likely to include cigarettes, a GCC official said.

Abdulaziz al-Uwaisheg, the GCC's head of studies and integration, was quoted by Al-Watan newspaper as saying the six-nation body had commissioned a team to list items that could be liable to the new tax from 2012, including private planes, luxury cars, yachts and "harmful items" -- a likely reference to cigarettes.

Uwaisheg, a Saudi based in Riyadh, said the GCC team looking into the proposed taxes would next meet in October.

The GCC, which includes Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has already set 2012 as the deadline for implementing a new value added tax, the paper said. -Reuters