Housing fee

Last week, newspapers announced the everyone in Dubai will have to pay a 5% housing fee on tenancy contracts. This fee has been collected since January of last year, however not everyone pays it yet, because not everyone gets charged for it.

This fee is usually charged on the DEWA bill, and some tenants do get charged, but a lot of others don't. In my office, we usually all get our DEWA bills at the same time, and we usually all compare our bills. A lot of my colleagues (some are even my neighbours) are not charged this municipality fee for some reason, whereas I get charged every single month.

It's really unfair because it really makes a huge difference on my bill total! My electricity and water charges usually come up to around 70 dhs only every month, but then my municipality fee adds another 265 dhs to the bill! And this is about to go up next month with my increase in rent.

If I am paying this stupid fee then everyone else should pay it as well. That's why I think it is high time Dubai Municipality ensures everyone gets treated equally. Either make sure everyone pays this fee, or simply abolish it. I vote for abolishing it. Isn't the UAE supposed to be a tax-free haven? Well, this is a tax disguised as a "municipality fee". How come it's only Dubai residents that have to pay this? Why are other Emirates exempted?