DUBAI: Shisha, or hookah, a tobacco that one smokes through a water pipe and many tourists and locals enjoy smoking, will not cost double in restaurants across Dubai despite being a tobacco product covered by the new tax, according to latest report. The Ministry of Finance has announced that the 100 per cent tax on tobacco products and their derivatives would come into effect on October 1.
“The final price that a customer in a restaurant pays for shisha will not double. The restaurant will have to pay double the wholesale price for its supplies of tobacco, but the final price they sell it for will not double,” said Hassan Bayrakdar, managing director at RAQAM Consultancy, a company specialising in regulatory compliance.
Bayrakdar added that the price of shisha tobacco would, however, double in shops and supermarkets.
“In Carrefour, for example, the price of shisha tobacco will increase 100 per cent, but the price you pay in restaurants will not double,” he said.
