UAE authority sets minimum price for pack of cigarettes at Dh8

The minimum price for a pack of 20 cigarettes in the UAE will be set at Dh8 from December 1, the Federal Tax Authority announced.

In a move that could help put an end to low quality tobacco products being sold in the country, the authority has called on all businesses registered for Excise Tax to comply with a number of new minimum pricing rules.

Individual cigarettes will carry a minimum 40 fils excise fee from December. And waterpipe tobacco will carry a minimum 10 fils excise charge on every gram, with a minimum retail price of at least Dh100 per kilo. Before, residents could buy a pack of cigarettes for as low as Dh3 in some parts of the country.

The new pricing scheme applies to all brands of cigarettes and locally traded tobacco products.

In August, the UAE Government announced that e-cigarettes and vaping devices would be hit with 100 per cent tax, expanding on the earlier implementation of the 2017 excise tax on tobacco. The decision was made after the sale of the alternative smoking devices were made legal in the UAE.

The move was intended to reduce consumption of harmful goods and prevent chronic illnesses linked to tobacco among residents in the country.

Speaking to The National earlier, doctors in the UAE welcomed the 100 per cent tax hike on tobacco products, but called on the government to lift the prices of the cheapest cigarettes on shop shelves.

“There is somewhere between a 2.5 to five per cent reduction in smoking use with a 10 per cent increase in price,” Dr Zaid Zoumot, consultant pulmonologist at the respiratory critical care institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi said.

The National