Considering the geographical location of Dubai, the Logistics industry has been on a rise since past few years. But it could not be saved from the pessimistic effects of the COVID-19. This ill-effect was not limited to Dubai, but has been evident throughout the world due to the hindrance faced by the transportation system which eventually resulted in the discombobulate supply chain.
In order to identify the level of the consequences which a logistic sector of a country have to face due to the pandemic, one can check out the available level of stocks that are present in the country and the level of difficulty the country faces to obtain such stocks. Prior to pandemic, Dubai had secured sufficient amount of stock in form of huge investment which in turn had made sure that there is no disturbance in the supply chain due to non-availability of the sufficient stock. Despite all these measurements, Dubai is still not regarded as a secured country just like other countries since new challenges came up during the time period of the global pandemic.
The only advantage that Dubai had was the functioning of air transport which allowed the continuance of the trade in some sectors, owing to the investment it had earlier made in technology. Not only this, the government here has made sure that the economy does not suffer from the pandemic by issuing various economic stimulus packages that have attracted the entrepreneurs here and has efficaciously reduced the difficulty and cost of running a business in this area. With respect to these packages, the custom department has also issued a number of notices that go along such stimulus as an add-on.
The following notices are:
1. Notice No 1 of 2020 provides that the imported goods which are sold locally in UAE will be enjoying 1% refund over its custom duty. The requisites which these types of goods had to follow for such refund were that such goods shall be covered under 5% rate of the custom duty and shall be falling under the import declaration processed during 15th March 2020 to 30th June, 2020. In addition to the custom brokers as well as clearing houses can now enjoy the waiving of the requirement of the obligation of bank guarantee. Moreover, the existing guarantees that were paid earlier will also be refunded by the government.
2. The second notice, that is Notice no 2 of 2020 had a paramount objective of easing the carrying out of business by making the custom procedure less ambiguous and making it cheap at the same time. They achieved this objective by putting a pause on the requirements mentioned under the notice 1 of 2018 and notice 4 of 2010. The deposit of AED1,000 in case of absence of original documents like the certificate of origin and the Halal Certificate is no more required to be paid.
3. Further, the notice no 7 of 2020 was regarded as the crucial notice, owing to the reduction of the penalties due to non-fulfillment of custom requirements by almost 80%, especially when this notice is applicable on the cases which are at their terminating points. The companies which will be charged with such penalties have to however paying full the custom duties and charges. Also, there was no change seen with respect to the prohibited goods. Finally, a benefit can be enjoyed by Dubai based companies due to the assistance provided along with the reduced difficulties faced as a result of the pandemic. Thus it is hoped by commercial lawyers of Dubai that an affirmative trend will be seen in the economy of Dubai because of the buoy situation faced by the business and trade, thereby resulting in the preservation of the title of trade hub by the county.
