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DUBAI SCRAPPED 30% ALCOHOL TAX AND MADE PERSONAL LIQUOR LICENCE FREE

By Susan Lewis

3-1-2023



Credit: Wael Hneini/Unsplash

Dubai has scrapped a 30 percent sales tax on alcohol and made alcohol licences free, in a move to boost its attractiveness to foreign tourists and businesses in the face of increasing competition from its Gulf neighbours.

It is not clear if the move, which took effect on 1 January, will be permanent. Some international media cited industrial source as reporting that the new policy will be on trial for one year.

Non-Muslim residents in Dubai need a personal alcohol licence in order to drink, transport or store alcohol at home.

Licence holders must be at least 21 years of age and used to have to pay an annual fee of USD70 to keep the licence. But now they can hold the licence free of charge.

Expatriates made up more than 80 percent of Dubai’s population. The government is planning to attract millions more in the coming decades and authorities have introduced a raft of measures aiming at loosening social restrictions.

Dubai has relaxed the sale of alcohol in daylight during Ramadan and approved home delivery during the pandemic.

This latest move is thought to be an attempt to make the city more attractive to foreigners, in the face of increasing competition from its Gulf neighbours in particular Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Alcohol is widely available in Dubai, but a glass of beer can cost more than USD15 and a bottle of wine USD100 at restaurants due to the 30 percent sales tax.

The two companies which distribute alcohol in Dubai, Maritime and Mercantile International, and African & Eastern, said they will pass on the cut in tax to their customers.

Alcohol is still completely banned in Saudi Arabia. In other Gulf countries like Qatar and Oman, it is heavily taxed.

(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)

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