Douane

Douane commonly refers to one of two agencies:

• the French customs and excise agency, the Directorate-general of customs and indirect taxes (French: La Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects (DGDDI))
• the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (Dutch: Belastingdienst)

Douanes were a system of taxation through custom duties in France in King Louis XIV's reign. In the singular, it is also the French and Dutch word for customs in the sense of a border check.

The term is derived from the Mughal title dewan (also diwan or divan), held by the chief revenue officer of a province, via the chiefly Bengali term diwani, denoting the right to collect an excise tax on imported goods.