The UAE’s Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has decided to postpone the implementation of the ban on supplying, transferring, storing, and possession of water pipe tobacco and e-cigarettes that do not carry digital tax stamps within the UAE to 1 January 2021, reports Gulf Today.

The ban was previously scheduled to come into effect on 1 June 2020, in line with phase two of the ‘Marking Tobacco and Tobacco Products Scheme’, the authority said in a statement.
The FTA explained that the move is due to the current conditions, which prevent certain producers, importers, distributors, and stockpilers of water pipe tobacco and e-cigarettes from meeting the previously set deadlines, the report said. Authorities had implemented strict precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, including temporarily closing cafés and restaurants and banning them from serving water pipes. According to the report, FTA Director-General Khaled Ali Al Bustani assured that the FTA’s decision to postpone the ban aims to give producers, suppliers, and distributors enough time to sort out any issues and be able to seamlessly implement the scheme.
"This extension on the timeline provides them with seven additional months to prepare for the mandatory implementation of the ban," he was quoted as saying.