Sharjah: The Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD) received 59 complaints about VAT-related violations in the first month of its implementation.
Sultan Abdullah Bin Hadda Al Suwaidi, chairman of SEDD, said: “We are working on combating all aspects of fraud and commercial manipulation and reduce the negative practices that may be practised by some.”
He added that a special team of commercial officers from the Department of Control and Commercial Protection is inspecting markets regularly following a comprehensive field plan.
Salim Al Suwaidi, deputy director of Commercial Control and Protection Department, said most of the complaints concerned unjustified price increases as well as issuing invoices with incomplete information about price and tax value.
He urged consumers to retain bills and file complaints through the call centre (80080000), or website www.shjconsumer.ae.
In Abu Dhabi, 15 shops were shut down for VAT violations last month.
In Dubai, the Department of Economic Development (DED) shut down commercial facilities following 98 campaigns and 3,520 inspections in January, Ahmad Tarish Al Qubaisi, acting director of the Commercial Protection Administration, said.
The DED received 505 VAT-related complaints in January.
As a result of these inspections, 85 tickets were issued to facilities that collected VAT without being registered in the tax system of the Federal Tax Authority and increased prices excessively for the period preceding the implementation of the tax by checking the previous bills.
