United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates operates an excise marking system for tobacco products, administered by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA).

Excise duties were introduced in 2017 on tobacco and energy drinks, later expanded to include carbonated beverages, sweetened drinks and electronic smoking devices and liquids.

To support enforcement, the UAE implemented the Digital Tax Stamps (DTS) system on tobacco products in 2019, requiring the application of secure, serialised stamps to cigarettes, cigars, fine-cut tobacco and waterpipe (shisha) tobacco. These stamps incorporate unique identifiers encoded in a 2D DataMatrix.

The system provides visibility over products entering the market and enables verification through scanning, but does not constitute a full end-to-end track and trace system. In particular, it does not mandate comprehensive event-based tracking across all supply chain stages, and visibility beyond the point of import or release is more limited.

The system was developed and is operated by Crane Authentication (formerly De La Rue Authentication), which supplies the secure stamp, serialisation infrastructure, and supporting digital platform.

While digital tax stamps are applied across all tobacco categories, including shisha, other excisable goods in the UAE remain subject to excise tax without physical marking. This includes electronic smoking devices and liquids, which are taxed but not currently covered by the DTS regime.