Etisalat prepaid recharge cards will not be effected by VAT, the telecoms company said on Wednesday.

Etisalat asked distributors to adhere to the approved pricing policies and not to levy any additional fee. It also called on customers to report any distributors who try to apply the 5 per cent tax.

“Etisalat has introduced five denominations of recharge cards sold at Dh30, Dh55, Dh110, Dh210 and Dh525 to ensure customers have sufficient credit to subscribe to existing data and combo packages after adding 5 per cent VAT,” the company said.
VAT will only apply on the actual usage, and not on the prepaid recharge cards value. Prepaid users will not pay any extra fee when they recharge.

Etisalat had earlier announced that starting January 1, 2018, it will start collecting VAT with a standard rate of 5 per cent on behalf of the government, which will be added on applicable products and usage of its services as per the UAE Federal Tax Authority.