DUBAI - Dubai has kicked off the new year by scrapping a 30 per cent tax on alcohol sales and making liquor licences free.Faced with increasing competition from Persian Gulf neighbours such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the government has introduced a series of rules over the past few years to make itself more attractive for foreigners to live and work.
That’s prompted many residents to drive to other emirates like Umm Al Quwain, about 80km from Dubai, where prices are much cheaper. Dubai’s other state-linked distributor, African & Eastern, has already cut prices to reflect the removal of the sales tax, it said in an Instagram post.They’ll still be needed because the United Arab Emirates restricts Muslims from buying alcohol.Expatriates make up more than 80 per cent of UAE’s population of 10 million people, of which Dubai is the biggest city.In the past two years, UAE authorities introduced a raft of measures aimed at loosening social restrictions.
Afterall only liquor will save the doomed economies.. In most cases.