They swung into action after receiving multiple neumerous from consumers…

On Tuesday we reported that serious fines of up to Dhs50,000 would be imposed on businesses that violated the new excise tax law which came into effect on Sunday 1 October.

The law states that all energy drinks and cigarettes now sold in the UAE will carry a 100 per cent tax, with soft drinks seeing a 50 per cent tax increase, as well. Sparkling water, thankfully, is still tax-free.

Well, it seems that the government was not messing around as The Khaleej Times reports that as many as 17 shops have so far been booked by the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) for taking advantage of some of the confusion around the implementation of the new tax.

The primary violation? Selling goods at the new rate, while still showing the old, pre-tax price printed on the product. This is a big no-no. Shops are required to clear all current pre-taxable stock before they can begin to implement the new pricing structure.

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The report goes on to say that according to Arabic daily newspaper Emarat Al Youm, some businesses had even begun selling products with the tax applied before the new law rolled out on October 1, which we suppose isn’t necessarily illegal, but still rather cheeky.

The DED swung into action after receiving neumerous complaints from consumers during the first two days of October and said that if the violations were repeated it would make the names of the offending business known to the public.

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