Dubai

The Federal Customs Authority said that the total value of custom duties transferred by the UAE to GCC countries reached around Dh1 billion in 2018.

The transfers were through the Automated Transfer Customs Duty system launched in October 2015 as part of the GCC Customs Union. During the last year, the duties transferred were through a total of 168,726 transactions.

Most of the Dh1 billion in customs transferred by the UAE were on goods that entered the country to be sent to other GCC states. More specifically, 84 per cent (or Dh866.4 million) of the customs transferred were for goods that entered through UAE ports. The other Dh136.8 million were on goods destined for the UAE and transferred from GCC countries.

The Customs Authority said that Saudi Arabia received the largest share of duties transferred from the UAE to Gulf countries in 2018, at Dh456.1 million or 52.6 per cent of the total. The Kingdom was followed by Oman, with a share of Dh241.4 million (27.9 per cent), Kuwait with Dh118.1 million (13.6 per cent), and Bahrain with Dh48.3 million (5.6 per cent).