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Dubai scraps 30% alcohol tax and licence fee in apparent bid to boost tourism
Dubai has scrapped its 30% alcohol tax in an apparent bid to boost tourism.
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It will also stop charging for personal alcohol licences - something residents who want to drink at home must have.
Dubai has been relaxing laws for some time, allowing the sale of alcohol in daylight during Ramadan and approving 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 competition from neighbours.
The two companies which distribute alcohol in Dubai, Maritime and Mercantile International (MMI), and African & Eastern, said they would reflect the cut in tax for consumers.
“Since we began our operations in Dubai over 100 years ago, the emirate’s approach has remained dynamic, sensitive and inclusive for all,” MMI spokesman Tyrone Reid told AP.
It is not clear if the move, which took effect on Sunday, will be permanent. The Financial Times described the move as a one-year trial, citing “industry executives informed of the decision”.
Expatriates outnumber nationals by nine to one in Dubai, known as the Gulf’s “party capital”, and residents commonly drive to Umm al-Quwain and other emirates to buy alcohol in bulk.
Dubai has historically managed to attract more tourists and wealthy foreign workers than its neighbours, in part because of its tolerance of a more liberal lifestyle.
But now it faces increasing competition from rivals developing their hospitality and finance sectors.
Non-Muslim residents in Dubai must be at least 21 years old to drink, transport or store alcohol at home and have an alcohol licence - a plastic card issued by police.
China carried out a huge military drill around Taiwan in August as well
UN seeks top court opinion on Israeli occupation
Rajouri: Tension in Kashmir after five killed
The UN General Assembly has asked the UN’s highest court to give a legal opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The resolution was backed by 87 countries but opposed by 26 others, including the UK and US.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues binding rulings, but it cannot enforce them.
Friday’s vote came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn as prime minister of the most hardline Israeli cabinet.
Israel occupies the West Bank, and although it pulled out of Gaza the UN still regards that piece of land as occupied territory.
Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The US is one of only a handful of countries to recognise the city as Israel’s capital.
Palestinians claim the West Bank, along with Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip for their hoped-for future state.
Palestinian officials hailed the UN vote as a victory. Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it was time for Israel to be “held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people”.
Israel’s new prime minister, for his part, described it as “despicable”.
“The Jewish people are not occupiers on their own land nor occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem and no UN resolution can warp that historical truth,” Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday evening.
On Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu returned as prime minister of Israel in a coalition with ultranationalist and ultraOrthodox Jewish allies.
The first guiding principle of the new government, published on Wednesday, declares that “the Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the land of Israel”.
It says that includes the occupied West Bank and promises to “advance and develop” settlements there.
About 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
The new government has also promised to retroactively legalise some 100 outposts in the West Bank built without Israeli authorisation - and to annex the West Bank.
A spokesman for the UK’s UN delegation said it did not feel a referral to the ICJ was “helpful in bringing back the parties back to dialogue”.
He added it was “inappropriate without the consent of both parties” to ask the court to advise on “what is essentially a bilateral dispute”.
The Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour addressing the press in a file photo from November
Parts of Indian-administered Kashmir are tense after five civilians were killed in two separate attacks in the same area in less than 24 hours.
Four people were killed and nine injured after militants fired at three houses in Rajouri district on Sunday evening.
On Monday, a child died and four people were hurt after a blast took place near the same houses.
The cause of the blast was not immediately clear.
Top police officials have started an investigation into the incidents.
Sunday’s attack has triggered protests and strikes in Rajouri as people blamed the local administration for the security lapse.
Manoj Sinha, the administrative head of the region, has condemned “the cowardly terror attack in Rajouri” and announced financial assistance for the families of the victims.
“I assure the people that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished,” he tweeted on Monday.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is hotly contested by both India and Pakistan, who both claim it in full but rule it in parts. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two wars and a limited conflict over Kashmir since 1947, when India was partitioned and Pakistan was created.
For more than three decades, an armed revolt has been waged against India’s rule in the region, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
India blames Pakistan for stirring the unrest by backing separatist militants in Kashmir - a charge Islamabad denies.
Jammu and Kashmir was India’s only Muslim-majority state until August 2019, when the federal government revoked its autonomy and divided it into two separate territories.
The four people who were killed on Sunday were from the minority Hindu community in Muslimmajority Kashmir.
Over the past year, several Hindus in Kashmir have been killed in targeted attacks by militants, sparking fear in the community.
Source: BBC
Sunday’s attack on civilians has triggered protests in Kashmir
