If you rang in the New Year with that hard-to-find bottle of bourbon you had been hunting down in off-the-beaten-path stores or through a private social media collectors’ group, you might have been getting more than you bargained for… you might have gotten counterfeit.

In June, in an unfortunate hooch tragedy (hooch is another word for moonshine – or illicit liquor), more than 100 people lost their lives in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Following the incident, a police raid raised concerns that the state excise policy was inadequate and needed reviewing, especially in relation to the use of tax stamps as an important anti-counterfeiting tool.

In a March article published by the Tax Foundation, Ulrik Boesen, Senior Policy Analyst, Excise Taxes, at the foundation’s Center for State Tax Policy examined how US state lawmakers are considering increasing excise taxes on soft drinks to offset decreases in income tax.

In 2019, more than 25 people died in a single case of alcohol poisoning resulting from methanol-laced alcoholic drinks. Soon thereafter, the government closed over 10 establishments and seized 55,000 containers of the killer alcohol.

In its bid to generate excise revenue and disrupt the kind of spurious partnerships between manufacturers and transporters that have led to tragedies involving illicit liquor, the Punjab state government has adopted a slew of excise policy measures.

Remember when we wrote a while back in Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ about the very plain, unsecured, serialised barcode label that had been introduced in Delhi, India to track and trace spirits, wine and beer products between distillery and final retailer (TSN January 2016)?

The Gaelic word ‘whisky’ can roughly be translated into English as ‘water’ and so it comes as no surprise that sales of the golden liquid are worth roughly £5 billion annually to Scotland’s economy. As with many premium products, whisky is a favourite target for counterfeiters, which not only takes income away from the legitimate brand owner but deprives revenue authorities of much needed taxes.

The National Office of Vine and Vitivinicultural Products (ONVPV) in Romania is using holographic labelling from security printer Eltronis to promote the provenance of its regional wines and protect consumers from potential counterfeits.

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, South Africa introduced two highly contentious prohibitions, banning the sale of both alcohol and tobacco products. The impact has seen both a complete loss of all duties and taxes from these commodities, and a booming illicit trade.

In the February issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, we launched a series of articles by Chander S Jeena, on the illicit tobacco trade in Southeast Asia and how it is being dealt with. This month we continue the series with an update on the situation in Thailand, although this time we are expanding our focus to include products other than tobacco.