UAE bans restaurant service charges
Posted on 09 February 2010 with no comments from readers
From tomorrow any restaurant in the UAE making a service charge is liable to be immediately shutdown. This marks an end to a two-month grace period from the Ministry of Economy for restaurants to comply with an official decree.
High restaurant bills have come under attack from consumers and government watchdogs alike as damaging to the tourism sector in the emirates. There is also a concern that service charges are not being passed on to staff as tips but retained by the owners and used to pay staff wages.
Tipping
From now onwards if you wish to leave a tip in the UAE it will be entirely at your discretion. ArabianMoney has been highlighting iniquitous service charges and the unjustifiably high prices in local restaurants for some time.
The removal of the service charge is a good start. But the over-charging for basic meals like steak and potatoes should also stop. Tourists getting a good deal on hotels in the UAE still sometimes find themselves ripped off at the dinner table.
Likewise the prices charged for a glass of wine are often outrageous and have nothing to do with the local taxes applied, and far more to do with profiteering. There is no need for this, and does anybody imagine that tourists do not notice that the prices are high here and that they can get better value elsewhere?
Tourism centre
For if the UAE is to remain and increase its competitive position as a centre for global tourism then it needs to offer the full value package, and not try to use bogus religious intolerance as an excuse to overcharge for drinks.
It is to be hoped that the full value of any tips left on the table will now go to often rather poorly paid staff, and not taken into some general pool where the owner gets a cut, as almost always happened with service charges in the past.
But in any case this is a step forward for the hospitality sector and a welcome move by the authorities whose decisive action is to be applauded.
no Comments posted by readers:
I think high rents in Dubai are also a factor for high food prices at restaurants. My guess is that they will remove the service charge from the total and just increase food prices by 10% which ends up being the same.
Well done UAE. The food prices may come at least a bit low in UAE because of this step. But I am waiting for the Ethiopian authorities to implement this is all restaurants in Ethiopia. We, local people are fed up with the tax + s/charge on food items.