Digital Stamp On Tobacco Products From January 2021

E-cigarettes and water pipe tobacco products (also known as shisha) need to have a digital tax stamp to avoid a ban from 01st January 2021.

To regulate the illegal tobacco trade and improve its capacity to levy taxes, the Federal Tax Authority plans to impose new regulations. All the shisha and electrically heated cigarettes, should bear the digital tax stamp from January 1st 2021. If these products don’t have DTS, it is illegal to procure, store, sell them in the UAE from March 1st 2021. The stakeholders of the tobacco trade can conduct a fair supply chain analysis to deter illegal tobacco trade into the country.

It also helps the FTA to implement compliance standards on the tobacco industry in the city. According to the new regulation, every product packet should bear a digital stamp and should be registered in the FTA database. A special device will read the data printed on the tobacco packet, and it is proof of tax payment to the Tax authority.

The factories have to send the order for Digital stamps individually, which helps the authorities to inspect the packages at the port of entry into the country. The suppliers have to submit application forms and pay the digital stamp fee that facilitates the FTA to track the registration of all the digital stamps from a central database.