Dubai: The UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA) reviewed the Excise Tax on Wednesday and said it has been a great success in all aspects.
The review marks the five-year anniversary since Excise Tax came into effect in the UAE (October 1, 2017). It was applied to carbonated beverages at a rate of 50 per cent, as well as tobacco products and energy drinks at 100 per cent. As of December 1, 2019, the scope of Excise Goods was expanded to include sweetened drinks, which became subject to a rate of 50 per cent, and electronic smoking devices and tools along with the liquids used within at a rate of 100 per cent, as per Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2019 on Excise Goods, Excise Tax Rates, and the Methods of Calculating the Excise Price.
The FTA revealed that the total number of Excise Tax registrants grew continuously from 309 by the end of 2017 to 1,227 registrants by the end of 2021. An additional growth rate of 19.72 per cent was recorded in the first nine months of the current year, where the total number of registrants reached 1,469 by the end of September 2022. Overall, this marks a cumulative growth of 375.41 per cent between the end of 2017 and the end of September 2022.
On a similar note, the Authority stated that the total number of products registered as Excise Goods in its database increased from 3,078 products by the end of 2017 to 27,037 by the end of 2021, and continued to increase by 14.04 per cent during the first nine months of 2022, reaching 30,834 products in September. The numbers reveal a staggering cumulative growth rate of 901.75 per cent between the end of 2017 and September 2022. The list of Excise Goods is periodically reviewed and adjusted, when necessary, as per the policy to review the list of FTA-approved prices for Excise Goods.
“The introduction of Excise Tax in the last quarter of 2017 and its expansion in 2019 form part of the government’s policies to preserve public health and its commitment to changing harmful consumption patterns, in an effort to minimise the damage caused by diseases,” said FTA’s Director General, Khalid Ali Al Bustani. “Excise Tax is an indirect tax paid by the end consumer and imposed on goods that are harmful to public health or the environment.”
