Looking back over the year that was, a few key developments spring to mind including: new programmes, illicit tobacco soaring, emerging technologies, the ISO tax stamp standard coming of age, and a ground-breaking study spotlighting track and trace breakeven cost.

In this series on emerging technologies, it has been notable how many of these technologies featured strongly at TSTF 2022. In this respect, however, warehouse automation is an interesting exception in that it hardly featured at that meeting.

A review of this year's headlines.
January
Ecuador under pressure? Pakistan reports 11% higher sugar tax revenues; Hungary’s ANY Security Printing to buy Romania’s Atlas; Economist Impact webinar discusses shift in illicit trade in Europe; new family of optical features from OpSec Security; the newest bootleg liquor is counterfeit bourbon; Jura workshops look to the future of security printing, including advancements in digital security printing.

Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ interviewed Jérôme Pichot, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Track & Trace, to learn more about his approach and aspirations in managing this innovative French company.

Authentix has announced that Tim Driscoll has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer, and advised the appointment of Chad Crouch as Senior Vice President, Revenue Operations and a member of the executive leadership team.

SICPA, which is headquartered in the Swiss canton of Vaud and is a leading supplier of tax stamp and government revenue solutions, has received an award for Best Swiss Company.

Brand protection and supply chain security specialist VerifyMe has announced the renewal of its exclusive ink taggant partnership with HP Indigo for a further five years.

Although it is impossible to predict the future, it is clear that the industry has a shared expectation for 2023 when it comes to revenue stamps: growth!

Ethiopia is looking to introduce tax stamps and track and trace for the first time, with the Ministry of Finance issuing a request for expression of interest to provide a technology solution for an excise stamp and track and trace system.

While the principal method of applying unique identifiers and other variable information to a tax or authentication label is via digital printing, some labels carry that information in a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

Polyart Group, a supplier of film and paper substrates for the specialty label market, and EDGYN, a security solutions specialist, have announced a partnership for the Asia Pacific region.

While direct marking could be considered as an opportunity for traceability solutions, it could also be viewed as a threat to physical tax stamps.

The South African case study on dealing with illicit tobacco continues to be an interesting one to follow.

Globally, revenue authorities are broadening their range of excisable goods to widen the tax base and generate more tax revenues.

The international standard ISO 22382:2018, which was published in October 2018 as a guidance for tax stamp issuers on best practice in the design, sourcing, issuance, and monitoring of tax stamps, is due for review in 2023.

Several large-scale seizures over the course of this year have shown that a concerning development, identified during Europol’s Serious and Criminal Organized Crime Assessment 2021 (SOCTA-21), has unfortunately not abated.

SICPA and nanotechnology company UbiQD have announced an expansion of their partnership to develop security inks based on the latter’s quantum dot technology.

In a press statement marking the fifth anniversary of the introduction of excise tax in the United Arab Emirates, the country’s Federal Tax Authority hailed its implementation as an all-round success.

Despite great efforts at a global level, illicit trade has grown into a pandemic, and India is no exception.

There are two conferences coming up soon which show just how important optical security features still are for authenticating documents such as banknotes, ID, and tax stamps.

Sri Lanka’s Commissioner General of Excise, M J Gunasiri, has announced that excise revenues from arrack and other alcoholic beverages have plummeted by 40%.

SICPA has finalised the roll-out of its SICPATRACE® platform in the US state of Michigan, under a new five-year contract with the Department of Treasury.

The ability to link a physical object such as a stamp, label, or direct mark into the digital space, through mobile devices such as a smartphone, is an area of great current interest. A key question to consider is how this physical/digital link may change so we can ensure our technologies keep pace with these changes.

Although secure track and trace systems are considered one of the most effective measures for reducing illicit trade, some governments are reluctant to implement them because of concerns about their cost.

The ability to link a physical object such as a stamp, label, or direct mark to the digital space, through devices such as a smartphone is a persuasive and growing field.

The Department of Excise & Taxation of Chandigarh (one of 36 states in India) has invited an expression of interest for the selection of a technology for a tax stamp and end-to-end track and trace system on alcohol products.

In late August 2022, a series of enforcement actions by California’s Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) pushed the amount of illegal cannabis seized passed the $1 billion mark.

The government of Nepal’s Security Printing Center in Kathmandu has issued an invitation for electronic bids for the secure printing, supply, and delivery of excise stamps on behalf of the Inland Revenue Department.

De La Rue has appointed David Sharratt as Managing Director of its Authentication division, replacing Andrew Clint, who has resigned to pursue other opportunities, after three years leading the division – and over 13 years with the company.

For over 17 years, Pakistan’s revenue authority, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has been in the crosshairs of providers of tax stamp and track and trace systems for excise products prone to revenue leakage.

This year has so far proven very successful for Authentix, as far as contract wins for fuel marking and tax stamp/marking systems on the African continent are concerned.

In the July 2022 issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, Dr Marietta Ulrich-Horn of Securikett stated that her company had always maintained a strong focus on tamper-evident solutions for tax stamps, because if a genuine stamp can be transferred to another product for reuse, it’s as if that stamp were actually a fake, whatever the number of security features it was carrying.

The menace of illicit seeds continues to haunt farmers across the globe. And when it’s the festive season, the problem starts mushrooming in almost all countries and continents, irrespective of whether it is India in Asia, Ecuador in South America, Georgia in Europe, or Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Tanzania in Africa.

In the past ten years or so, quantum materials have become increasingly interesting to scientists looking for properties not usually exhibited by classical structures. While most solids display varying degrees of repeatability in the array of atoms from which they are formed, when you get down to the atomic level, where quantum effects are most pronounced, materials display unique attributes due to their randomness.

During the last Tax Stamp and Traceability Forum™, held in Malta in May of this year, Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ was able to interview Milagro J Mendoza, a Panamanian lawyer who specialises in tax-related issues in her country and who works for the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI – or Dirección General de Ingresos) in Panama.

At the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ in May 2022, I presented a paper on the emerging technologies that I believe will have significant impact on the tax stamp business sector. From this came an article in Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ in June summarising the threats and opportunities from these. The aim of this article is to take a deeper look into one of these technologies – digital printing.

On 1 June, SICPA Morocco inaugurated its new regional coding centre for highly secure tax stamps in the industrial zone of Sidi Bernoussi in Casablanca.

The Indian state of Rajasthan is implementing holographic tax stamps and an end-to-end traceability system on liquor products, to allow the state excise department to track and trace each bottle and case of liquor.

The tax stamp started life as a piece of paper that was almost the same for every product, but that soon evolved into different designs for different products, says Swiss company U-NICA, a leading provider of product and brand value protection solutions.

Counterfeit liquor, which for years has been a problem for connoisseurs of fine wine, champagnes, and single-malt scotch, has started to become an issue for America’s fine brown liquor – bourbon.

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is deeply embedded in many societies worldwide. According to Statista, global consumption in 2019 generated $1.53 trillion in legally registered sales (recorded alcohol), equating to total volume sales of more than 296 billion litres.

Every government needs revenue to run the affairs of its country in the best possible manner. Tax evasion and leakages work like a parasite feeding off the overall wellbeing of citizens, which is why every government seeks to plug those leakages, and thus recover lost revenues.

Although excise tax management systems and tobacco control programmes have different goals, there is a point at which these goals overlap, given that both parties have an interest in eliminating illicit trade.

In the world of public tenders, the acronyms RFI and RFP, as well as some others, are used on a regular basis by government institutions all over the world, as well as their authorised suppliers and, of course, the media. But does everyone really know what they stand for? And what their usage is, or should be?

After more than 15 years’ experience in developing and operating SICPATRACE® – a leading product authentication and traceability solution for government authorities – SICPA has launched its latest technology platform: SICPATRACE® Evo.

Optel Group was a welcome addition to the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ this year as it brought a different emphasis to the table when it comes to tax stamp solution delivery. Dr Foued Barouni, Solutions Manager, presented a paper explaining how high-speed production conditions affect the way tax stamp compliance could be delivered.

First presented at the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum in May 2022, in this article Dr Alan Hodgson considers emerging technologies and developments that are likely to have an impact on the tax stamp and traceability industry.

In the second half of this year, SICPA will open its ‘unlimitrust’ campus, in a brand-new building situated close to its headquarters in Prilly, Switzerland.

Following its 5th Annual General Meeting, held in May 2022 in Malta during the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum, the International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) has appointed three directors to its board. Furthermore, ITSA is pleased to announce the appointment of a new chairman.

UK print specialist Hague Group has acquired PSL Print Management, also based in the UK. The acquisition has increased turnover for the enlarged group to £50 million, and makes it one of the largest privately owned print specialist groups in the UK.

The Tax Stamp and Traceability Forum™ was an ideal gathering to learn how ISO 22382:2018, the international tax stamp standard, is being used. It gave the opportunity to hear revenue agencies’ and tax stamp suppliers’ attitude to the standard four years after it was published.

The market for legal cannabis is growing, and California, the largest regulated cannabis market in the United States, ranks first among states that are taking in more cannabis taxes than alcohol taxes.

A snapshot of the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum, Malta. More images and the conference review will be posted on the website shortly https://taxstamptraceabilityforum.com/.

While globally, most tax stamps are used on tobacco products at federal level, the situation is somewhat different in India, where almost all tax stamps in circulation are used on alcoholic beverages at individual state level.

The European Commission has appointed NYSE-listed Dow (one of the three largest chemical producers in the world) to supply the new common fiscal marker for tax rebated fuels in the European Union.

The Tax Stamp and Traceability Forum™ (TSTF) returned as an in-person event in May 2022 with 194 registrants from 99 organisations and 35 countries. The conference was organised into eight sessions spanning two full days plus a pre-conference workshop day.

The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) in Bahrain has launched its digital tax stamp and traceability system on cigarettes, following the signing of a contract with De La Rue in 2021.

The Cannabis Work Group of AIM North America, the premier alliance for the automated data capture technologies industry, has released a white paper reviewing the use of automatic identification and data capture solutions (including barcodes, RFID, and NFC) for cannabis traceability.

Canada’s 2022 budget has proposed potential changes to Canada’s federal excise tax system for cannabis, including allowing licensed cannabis producers to transfer excise duty stamps between them.

Join us for a cannabis panel discussion on 17 May at the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum in Malta. Technology providers and government representatives will discuss how countries should be dealing with the high earning potential of cannabis versus more traditional tobacco and alcohol products, and will compare different seed-to-sale authentication and track and trace mechanisms for protecting against illicit trade.

After several years of little to no travel as a result of COVID-19, it was wonderful to meet up with old and new colleagues again at the High Security Printing™ Latin America conference, held in Mexico City in March.

Following the implementation of its automated marking system in September 2020, the Togolese revenue authority, l’Office Togolais des Recettes (OTR), has reported a substantial increase in excise collections.

The advent of the smartphone has led to a surge in the development of smartphone readable security features.

The programme for the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ is now complete, and promises to deliver a compelling and informative mix of technical papers, case studies, panel discussions and roundtable workshops.

Cannabis is fast becoming one of the top excise revenue sources for states that have legalized the substance. Cannabis excise tax revenue collection, as a matter of fact, is outpacing liquor tax collection in most states where it has been legalized.

According to high-security printer Royal Joh Enschedé (RJE), the humble postage stamp is undergoing a phenomenal digital transformation.

After the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, consumers in Delhi will soon be able to buy liquor in 180ml Tetra Pak containers.

A new nationwide study commissioned by SICPA North America shows overwhelming support among cannabis users for more in-depth information about the products they may use.

During a recent symposium on the implementation of track and trace in the fertiliser sector, Pakistan’s FBR declared that, given the proven success of the system on tobacco and sugar, its aim going forward was to ensure ‘no production without taxation’ across the country.

For tobacco product manufacturers required to comply with the traceability provisions of the EU TPD, the placing of individual identifying codes on each pack, and then on each carton is a challenging additional step in the production process.

The Smoke Free Partnership, a European coalition of NGOs working to mobilise governments to make tobacco control a political priority, has raised concerns about the track and trace provisions of the EU Tobacco Products Directive.

Eighteen months after lifting its cigarette ban, South Africa still struggles with inflated illicit sales, proving that the experts were right when they said the ban would entrench illicit trade into the day-to-day life of the country and make it very difficult to eradicate.

The Smoke Free Partnership, a European coalition of NGOs working to mobilise governments to make tobacco control a political priority, has raised concerns about the track and trace provisions of the EU Tobacco Products Directive.

From 6 May, the Mozambique Tax Authority will enter a new phase of combating excise tax evasion with the introduction of a direct digital marking system on beer and ready-to-drink beverages.

TAXMAP®, an e-invoicing and tax filing platform based on the use of blockchain bookkeeping and digital tax stamps, has been awarded a UK Smart Grant of £500,000 from Innovate UK. The grant will be used by TAXMAP to provide e-commerce companies with a real-time, cross-border tax and audit compliance solution.

Over the years, the business case for using tax stamps has increased considerably, in tandem with the emergence of new technologies and best practices for managing excise and other goods that require robust supply chain controls.

De La Rue has signed a contract with the Oman Tax Authority to implement a tax stamp and digital traceability solution for excisable goods.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has appointed Dentsu Tracking, a specialised brand of Dentsu International Switzerland, as provider of the UK’s standalone tobacco track and trace system.

Reconnaissance International, publisher of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, is pleased to announce the launch of its monthly publication, Authentication & Brand News™, with effect from January 2022, replacing Authentication News®.

Part of any anti-illicit product strategy should ideally include measures to reduce consumer demand for illicit products in the first place. While such measures could include imposing penalties on consumers for buying illicit goods, Taiwan has gone in the opposite direction with a scheme that rewards consumers for buying genuine, compliant goods.

Conferences are back! And this includes the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™, which takes place from 16-18 May 2022 in Malta. The programme is well on its way to being finalised, and here we share some of the papers and discussions confirmed so far.

Launched in 2021, HP Inc has installed its newly imported HP Indigo 6K Secure Digital Press in Nepal, for the local production of tax stamps and other secure documents.

In the August 2021 issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, we covered some rather controversial changes that Ecuador’s tax authority, Servicio de Rentas Internas (SRI) had pushed through back in April in the form of Resolution NACDGERCGC21-00000019.

Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reported 11% higher tax revenues from the sugar sector, following the expansion of its tax stamp and track and trace system in November last year (the system was initially launched on domestically produced tobacco products earlier in 2021).

Jura Security Printing recently held a series of practical workshops in Budapest, Hungary to discuss the future of security printing. This was one of the first events in the last year or so that customers and suppliers had physically travelled to in order to meet up in person, so it was filled with plenty of energy and enthusiasm.

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.

OpSec Security has launched OpSec® SuRe, a new family of surface relief effects for security and brand protection applications that provide striking Level 1 features.

In December last year, Economist Impact, part of the Economist Group, convened a roundtable titled ‘Continental shift: tackling illicit trade in Europe’ to discuss the fundamental changes illicit trade has undergone in Europe and to provide insights into how governments, service providers and industry need to address the issue.

The deadline for submitting a 200-word abstract on your proposed topic or case study is 28 January 2022.

Hungary-based ANY Security Printing has signed an agreement to acquire Romanian forms production and personalisation services provider Atlas for €1.37 million ($1.55 million).

The International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) is inviting regional government authorities to a pre-conference seminar to discuss best practices and lessons learned in the tracking and tracing of excise products, especially tobacco and alcohol.