FTA Issues Decision on the Procedures for the Disposal of Seized and Abandoned Goods

The FTA issued Decision No. 7 of 2026, on 11 June 2026, setting out the procedures that the FTA will follow in storing, moving, selling and disposing of seized and abandoned goods, and the order in which the proceeds of a sale are applied. It takes effect from its date of publication in the Official Gazette, which was 30 July 2026, so it is already in force. The Decision is of most immediate interest to businesses in the excise supply chain, but it applies to any person whose goods are seized by the FTA or treated as abandoned.

Key Highlights

• The Decision does not create a general disposal regime for everything the FTA seizes. It applies only to seized or abandoned goods that are perishable, that are subject to shortage or leakage, or that are in a condition which might endanger the safety of other goods or of the facility in which they are held. For seized goods outside those categories, the position continues to be governed by the Tax Procedures Law and its Executive Regulation, and this Decision does not answer it.
• The FTA must preserve the condition, quality and quantity of the goods during storage and movement and maintain appropriate inventory, monitoring and access records.
• The competent committee may authorise a public-auction sale where the statutory conditions are met, including where the owner has not retrieved the goods after settling the relevant tax, penalties and expenses, has exhausted the right of retrieval, or has waived that right. Court or public-prosecution approval is required where the goods relate to an investigation or pending proceedings.
• Sale proceeds are applied first to auction, storage and movement costs, then to outstanding tax and administrative penalties. Any balance may be credited to the owner’s tax account; where the owner has waived recovery, it may be treated as FTA revenue.

What this means for Businesses

The practical message of this Decision is that time works against the owner of seized goods. Storage and movement costs accrue from the moment of seizure, they must be paid in full before the goods can be retrieved, and they are recovered first out of any sale. Goods that are perishable by nature will also lose value while the position is being argued, and once they have lost their value altogether the FTA cannot sell them at all, which leaves the owner with the liability and nothing to set against it.

The notification mechanism reinforces the same point. The owner is told about the sale after the Committee has decided on it and is given the reasons and the date rather than an opportunity to make representations. Anything the owner wants to say about whether the goods are genuinely perishable, whether they still have value, or whether the storage costs are reasonable, needs to be said early, at the point of seizure, rather than in response to a sale notice.

For businesses in the excise chain, the Decision is also a reminder of what a seizure now costs. The exposure is no longer limited to the tax and the penalties on the goods themselves. It includes the cost of storing and moving them, which the business does not control, and the loss of the goods at auction values rather than commercial ones.