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LOOK: Reactions from consumers as 5% VAT takes effect in UAE

Residents and expats, including Filipinos in the UAE, have posted their reactions on social media as the 5% percent value-added tax started taking effect yesterday, January 1, 2018.

Some consumers who went shopping posted their first purchased items inclusive of VAT.

One of them was Vince, a Filipino, who posted a receipt of food he has ordered in Dubai. On top of the Dh161 price of what he had purchased, Dh7.67 was levied.

He posted on Facebook, “It’s official.”

VINCE 1

Sonia Abbas Sha also shared an invoice of her take away meal. The original price (with delivery) was only Dh69.00, but with VAT she had paid Dh72.45.

Emily Thomas shared that she shopped on New Year’s Eve for the first time, to avoid purchasing items with tax on the first day of 2018. She tweeted this with the hashtag #DubaiProblems.

But it is not only UAE where citizens are affected of VAT. Even overseas workers in Saudi Arabia have expressed their thoughts towards VAT implementation.

Saudi-based Filipino worker Zonita Maria Cardino, said on Twitter that it feels like she’s in the Philippines now when paying with tax.

Another Twitter user named Andrew Leber posted a receipt of the espresso he bought.

Leber claimed that merchants tend to “knocked up prices” so that they could meet up with rounding the numbers.

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