Tax Authority signs agreement to provide digital tax stamp services

Muscat: The Tax Authority signed an agreement to provide digital tax stamp system services with De La Rue International, a company specialised in designing distinctive tax stamps.

The project provides advanced technology from high-security printed digital stamps, digital direct-to-product printing and selective product tracking software in the Sultanate of Oman.

The digital tax stamp system is one of the latest systems for tracking the movement of goods and takes the form of a label or code containing digital product data. It is placed on the selective goods.

The data can be read by scanning it using a smart phone program that shows its movement from the date of its production to the date it was displayed in sales outlets. The system feeds the electronic database of the tax authority, where it is analysed to ensure the payment of the tax on locally traded excise goods and to collect information related to the violating goods.

This system will enable the tax authority to tighten control over the suppliers' commitment to pay the excise tax and to monitor the production and import processes of excise goods, which will contribute to enhancing the tax proceeds. This project also complies with the requirements of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), together with the European Union directives on the control of tobacco products.

The project will be implemented in several phases gradually, so that each phase will target one type of excise goods traded in the market. The first phase is expected to start in April 2022 and target tobacco products (cigarettes). Each phase will be divided into three periods starting from the date of stopping import without stamps, then the date of prohibiting the circulation of goods without stamps, and the last stage will determine the date of not allowing the possession of goods without stamps, according to a timetable through which the readiness of importers and producers of these goods was taken into account. The stakeholders will be given a sufficient period of time to reconcile their conditions and finding a mechanism to dispose stock of products available with them that do not bear tax stamps.

From this point of view, the Tax Authority began working with companies that supply tobacco products and its derivatives by maintaining coordination to hold a workshop starting next week. The workshop will clarify the importance of the project and its mechanism of action. It will also discuss the appropriate dates for the beginning of each period.

The Tax Authority will also announce at a later time the project's stages, information and instructions required for all importers, manufacturers and consumers to ensure smooth implementation throughout the Sultanate of Oman.

This project comes in implementation of the Unified Agreement for Selective Tax in the GCC states in relation to the execution of tax stamps on excise goods, which were applied by the GCC countries that apply the selective tax. The De La Rue International is one of the leading companies in the digital stamp industry worldwide.