Restaurants and cafes in five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia now have to pay SR100,000 annual fee to continue serving tobacco products to their customers, Saudi Gazette reported.
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has fixed the amount as the annual fee for the issuance or renewal of license for establishments classified in the first-grade group as part of the new fee regulations. According to the regulation, the license fee will be assigned in accordance with the classification grade of the restaurants and cafes.
Food outlets that are considered as under the first-grade classification include those in Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, and Dammam, Al-Khobar, and Dhahran.
While the license fee for 5-star hotels is around SR100,000, 4-star hotels in the first-grade group are assigned a fee of about SR50,000, while the fee for those in the fifth-grade comes at SR5,000.
The Ministry also noted the most attractive places in the city, and based the license fees on their classifications.