BAHRAIN. Bahrain Duty Free has added excise duty to tobacco prices in its arrivals stores at Bahrain International Airport, following new regulations introduced by government in December.
The company confirmed the move to The Moodie Davitt Report, though it said local media reports that cited a doubling of tobacco pricing in arrivals were inaccurate.
Head of Operations Domnick O’Reilly said: “Last month in our arrivals store, we commenced the selling of tobacco with excise duty included, to comply with a request from the relevant ministry.
“To minimise the impact on our customers we have reviewed our pricing in this outlet to ensure that we continue to offer substantial savings compared to the local market pricing on tobacco items.” He said that if prices had doubled, as per claims in The Daily Tribune of Bahrain, then the retailer could not have maintained preferential pricing versus downtown stores.
On the impact to date, the company said that it has seen “a small drop in sales in the arrivals store”, but noted that this “has more or less been matched by an increase in sales of tobacco in our departures outlet”. O’Reilly said: “We believe that through ensuring that our customers are aware of the value we continue to offer that the overall impact will be minimal.”
Bahrain Duty Free said it was confident that the addition of duties on tobacco pricing would not be extended to departures.
