Dubai Municipality banned sale of tobacco products for 24 hours in the entire emirate to observe the World No Tobacco Day on Thursday, May 31, said Redha Salaman, Director of Public Health and Safety Department at Dubai Municipality.
World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on May 31. It is meant to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption across the globe. The day is further intended to draw global attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to 5.4 million deaths worldwide annually. The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) in 1987. In the past twenty years, the day has been met with both enthusiasm and resistance across the globe from governments, public health organizations, smokers, growers, and the tobacco industry.
“The move is aimed at spreading awareness about the dangers of cigarette smoking to make people think about the dangers of tobacco consumption, as it kills millions of people and affects the public health,” Redha said.
“The civic body had announced a programme to regulate smoking in public places in 31 May 2007. It has honoured many individuals and establishments for taking firm steps against smoking to promote a healthy life style in the society,” he added.
To support ‘Dubai without Smoking’ initiative of the Municipality, 283 entities including shops, hypermarkets, supermarkets, 52 Emirates pumps and 85 Enoc pumps will participate in the campaign. All restaurants and cafes are expected to cooperate with the civic body and participate in the campaign by stopping the sale of tobacco products during the day.
The volunteer participants include major business establishments such as Hyper Panda, Safeer Group, News Center, Cadolle, Spinneys, Carrefour, Choithram, Lulu, Maya, Family, West Zone and J-Mart.
Dubai customs bust Dh140m cigarette smuggling operation
A director is held for conducting a cigarette smuggling operation worth Dh140 million over two years.
The director of a company in the Jebel Ali free zone Port has been referred to Dubai court on charges of smuggling cigarettes, Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm reported.
The man is accused by Dubai Customs of avoiding charges at Jebel Ali Free Zone in order to get undeclared cigarettes onto the local market.
The head of Bur Dubai Prosecution Sami Salim Al Shamsi confirmed that the total amount of customs charges due on these smuggled cigarettes is about 140 million dirhams.
The accused smuggled cigarettes without completing necessary procedures and customs clearance procedures.
Al Shamsi said, "The company's manager outsmarted Mirsal 2, the e-customs declaration system, and made 237 transactions and smuggled into the local market different brands of cigarettes during two years."
The prosecution stressed that the defendant smuggle of cigarettes of different species outside the free zone of Jebel Ali without ending the customs procedures, and without following the specific ways in getting them outside the port.
Dubai Customs hired auditing experts, who conducted their own questioning and discovered the process of customs evasion that was committed by the suspect. He tried to elude the customs' questioning a number of times.
However, Khalid Amin Al Zarouni the supervisor of the investigation disclosed that the different brands of cigarettes that the suspect smuggled into the market without paying customs fees have high customs value.
Zarouni said, "Suspects who evade customs fees on these kinds of expensive products, could end up facing a fine that could reach 200 per cent according to GCC's Unified Customs Law and its bylaws and its clarification memorandum of 2003."
The accounting reports issued by the competent department at Dubai Customs confirmed that the defendant committed the crime of smuggling.
He added as well the public prosecution reviewed the companies that the accused dealt with them where all of them confirmed the existence of such transactions between them and the company of the accused.
Al- Zaraouni stressed on the ease of these procedures requires that all companies operating in free zones and customs areas comply with all procedures provided by the Common Customs Law of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The accused will be soon put on trail.
Image from Shutterstock
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