Dafza cuts fees up to 65%, waives fines
dubai — The Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (Dafza) on Sunday announced a reduction in fees by up to 65 per cent and waived licence expiry fines to help the struggling companies in the free zone and also to attract more foreign direct investment as part of reducing the cost of doing business in the emirate.
The free zone reduced registration, licence and staff visa fees for new investors by 65 per cent, 33 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
Establishment card issuance fees have been cut by 17 per cent, fees for board resolution and MOA issuance have also been waived.
The new incentives include facilitating the process of obtaining general trading licences for new investors by halving the capital requirement from Dh1 million to Dh500,000. The free zone also allowed its member companies to be structured as a Limited Liability Free Zone Company (FZ-LLC), in a bid to provide more flexibility in business setup, licensing and operation.
Dr Mohammed Al Zarooni, director-general, Dafza, had told Khaleej Times in an interview in May that the two free zones were considering to reduce fees and other costs.
As part of its measures to make the emirate more competitive and help struggling businesses, the
Dubai government has asked local entities to reduce the cost of business. So far, a number of initiatives have been announced such as reducing fees by municipality, economic departments and freezing of school fees.
Dr Raed Safadi, chief economic adviser, Department of Economic Development in Dubai, told Khaleej
earlier this month that the emirate intends to announce another round of incentives and measures in September to increase its competitiveness and bring in more FDI.
In addition, Dafza has waived licence expiry fines in an effort to relax the terms of licence renewal.
“These incentives were agreed upon following comprehensive studies and polls evaluating the free zone’s initiatives, services, and business environment. This has allowed us to ensure flexibility at Dafza in meeting the requirements of new foreign investors and current customers,” said Al Zarooni.
Dafza said the new licence structure will be introduced to new investors and current customers at the end of Q3 2018. It also revealed that more initiatives and incentives are in the pipeline, including facilitating the issuance of no objection certificates to facilitate investment processes.
These incentives were agreed upon following comprehensive studies and polls evaluating the free zone’s initiatives, services, and business environment Dr Mohammed Al Zarooni, Director-general, Dafza