Dubai commuters angry over proposed toll road
Monday, 2 July 2007
DUBAI, July 1 (AFP): Dubai commuters are alarmed over plans to slap a toll on the city-state's main thoroughfare, claiming there are no viable alternatives to the road and worried about creeping indirect taxation in the historically tax-free emirate.
More than 8,000 people have signed an online petition urging the government to postpone a plan to impose a toll on Sheikh Zayed Road from July 1 until alternative routes and the new metro network are completed.
They also say the four-dirham (1.08 dollar, .80 euros) levy is too high for a majority of workers, already facing rampant inflation, which hit 9.3 per cent in 2006.
"Salik ("clear way" in Arabic) will divide rich from poor. (It is) time to go back to my country," wrote Rova Veluz, one of the signers, who belongs to an expatriate community that represents more than 80 per cent of Dubai's 1.3 million inhabitants.
More than 8,000 people have signed an online petition urging the government to postpone a plan to impose a toll on Sheikh Zayed Road from July 1 until alternative routes and the new metro network are completed.
They also say the four-dirham (1.08 dollar, .80 euros) levy is too high for a majority of workers, already facing rampant inflation, which hit 9.3 per cent in 2006.
"Salik ("clear way" in Arabic) will divide rich from poor. (It is) time to go back to my country," wrote Rova Veluz, one of the signers, who belongs to an expatriate community that represents more than 80 per cent of Dubai's 1.3 million inhabitants.