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The timing of the sudden change has been met with disapproval from some residents who had recently paid for their yearly license in full.
Dubai has announced that it is scrapping its 30% tax on alcohol sales for the rest of 2023. This is the municipality’s latest step towards strengthening the tourism sector and attracting foreign residents through policy changes.
“Dubai Municipality has temporarily stopped collecting the 30% fee from alcoholic beverage companies for a period of one year from the beginning of 01/01/2023 to the end of 12/31/2023. The companies authorized to sell in the Emirate of Dubai have been notified of this decision,” the Dubai Municipality tweeted.
Alcohol is notoriously expensive in Dubai. A pint of beer could cost about $15 and a glass of wine, $20 or more. The municipality’s decision is aimed at boosting business among tourists and locals as it aspires to become the “happiest place on Earth.”
“The decision to suspend alcohol taxes follows moves to change its weekend to Saturday-Sunday and the widening of access to long-term residency visas. As a collective, these initiatives should boost tourism and encourage more expatriates to think of Dubai as their home,” Karim Jetha, chief investment officer at Dubai-based asset management firm Longdean Capital said.
The news was first revealed by local alcohol distributors with Maritime and Mercantile International (MMI) writing Sunday on its Facebook page: “You can now: save 30% municipality tax on alcoholic beverages. We have reflected this across all our pricing!” It added that the UAE’s 5% sales tax (VAT) still applies, however.
Personal liquor licenses, a requirement when buying alcohol in local shops, previously cost 270 dirhams ($73.50) but are now free. Licenses were not required when buying alcohol in bars, however. Before the start of the year, the licenses had to be renewed every year and took about four weeks to be processed. It is still unclear if this will remain the case for the free licenses. As it stands, Dubai is the only emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that mandates the use of liquor licenses for in-shop alcohol purchases. In Abu Dhabi and four other emirates, no license is required while the sale of alcohol is prohibited in the more conservative emirate of Sharjah.
The timing of the sudden change has been met with disapproval from some residents who had recently paid for their yearly license in full. Generally, however, the news was received favorably. It comes at a time when neighboring Saudi Arabia is working hard at taking the UAE’s spot as the region’s tourism and commercial capital.
Australian luxury spirits company, Strait Brands has tapped the powers of the Cardano blockchain to manage its supply chain network. As announced by Input-Output Global, the blockchain firm behind the Cardano network, Strait Brands will build its production process around the protocol’s authentication platform, Atala SCAN, as it looks to supply as many as 4 million bottles before the end of 2022.
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Cardano launched its smart contract platform back in September, and thus far, tons of new smart contracts with advanced functionalities have made their way onto the blockchain protocol. Brandished as one of the most scalable decentralized infrastructures today, the enterprise adoption of Cardano has also surged in the past weeks.
The embrace of the Cardano blockchain will help Straits Brand deploy a tamper-proof software system created by Input-Output using Atala SCAN, which can record and store data securely and instantly verify the origins of products throughout the supply chain. Operating deep within an industry where so many products are counterfeited, the Strait Brands-Cardano link-up will help provide an added level of trust to the former’s business.
“Strait Brands is embarking on large-scale international distribution and, conscious of the challenges the industry faces, we decided to take a blockchain-first approach to production, ensuring industry-leading levels of safety and verifiability in our supply chain,” said Philip Ridyard, founder of Strait Brands “Input-Output is an essential partner in Strait Brands’ pioneering movements in the alcohol industry, protecting the integrity of Strait vodkas, gins, and our new super-premium range, Badger Head.”
Blockchain as a Tool to Solve Supply Chain Woes
While the deployment of blockchain-based solutions in correcting the current woes of the supply chain industry is still in its infancy, its hidden potentials have been pointed out even by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Besides Strait Brands, other multinational consumer goods manufacturer deploying blockchain-based solutions for their supply chain networks includes soft drinks giant, CocaCola. Each blockchain model has its unique approach and using the Atala SCAN model, all ingredients employed in the production of the alcohol brand can be stored, making authentication easier and thus fighting counterfeits most efficiently.
Impact of Smart Contract Boom on Cardano Price Outlook
Before the launch of the Smart Contract functionality on Cardano, thousands of new projects were notably in the queue to launch on the protocol. Many analysts believe the impact of this broad-based adoption will be a corresponding growth in the price of ADA, the network’s native token.
The price of Cardano as of September 12 when the smart contract was launched was about $2.66, and current market dynamics have suppressed this growth to its current trading price of $2.13 per coin.
Though the outlook may look bearish at present, the proliferation of smart contracts on the protocol is bound to increase the demand for ADA which in turn will come to impact the price of the digital currency in the medium to long term.
Disclaimer
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
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