Tobacco and energy drink prices are set to double in the United Arab Emirates, which is imposing steep excise taxes to help ease a budget shortfall caused by low oil prices. Khaled al-Bustani, director general of the newly established UAE Federal Tax Authority, said on Wednesday that the 100-percent tax would be introduced from October 1.

Prices of other types of soft drinks will increase by 50 percent, Bustani told a press conference. He declined to say how much the UAE will raise from the tax. The decision stems from agreements reached by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to raise the prices of those products, then impose a long-awaited value-added tax (VAT) from the start of next year.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017