Dubai is reportedly planning to reintroduce a 30% alcohol sales tax effective 1 January 2025, reversing a policy that suspended the tax in 2023 to boost tourism.
The announcement, communicated by major alcohol distributors MMI and African+ Eastern, instructs businesses to prepare systems for compliance with the reinstated fee.
The initial suspension, which spanned two years, provided significant cost savings for restaurants, bars, and hotels, allowing them to pay 30% less on alcohol purchases.
While alcohol prices in retail stores like MMI and African+ Eastern saw direct reductions, the savings were not fully passed on to consumers at dining establishments due to other operational cost factors.
In a related development, Dubai is set to host the GCC’s first large-scale brewery, led by Sirocco, a joint venture between Heineken and Dubai’s Maritime and Mercantile International (MMI).
