We are pleased to announce that this year’s Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ will take place from 2-4 October 2023, in the wonderful city of Tbilisi, Georgia.
Work is now underway to prepare the conference programme, which will include workshops, panel discussions and standalone presentations. To this end, we have launched a call for papers, which we invite revenue authorities, solution providers, NGOs, academics and industry experts to respond to, by submitting a 200-word abstract on a subject of their choice.
We also welcome ideas on topics you may like to see covered by other speakers at this year’s event.
To get the ball rolling, some topics and questions that have been uppermost in our mind during the past 12 months include the following:
Most countries that are party to the FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products have until September this year to implement secure track and trace systems on tobacco products. What is the status of this? Will all countries be able to implement in time?
Illicit cigarette production facilities in the EU, and elsewhere, are morphing into localised, sophisticated operations that churn out massive quantities of counterfeit and other illicit products. How can this be stopped? What role could enforcement authorities, and even the EU Tobacco Products Directive, play in countering this scourge?
We want to hear from inspectors in the field as to the challenges they face when investigating suspect products and operations. How do they authenticate products? What devices do they use and which security features do they prefer? Most of us assume smartphones are widely used by inspectors to read codes and authenticate products, but is this really the case?
How are solution providers incorporating new, and potentially disruptive technologies like blockchain, IoT, AI, augmented reality, biometrics and drones into their offering? And is traditional security printing, in the face of these new technologies… dying?
Another question for solution providers: how are you integrating your specific solutions for tax stamps and track and trace into a broader tax and customs administration platform?
Other potential topics for a paper could include:
Success stories in terms of increased tax revenues, decreased illicit trade, increased seizures, or other outcomes, as a result of implementing tax stamp programmes
Market surveillance and point-of-sale monitoring programmes for helping enforcement authorities to identify illicit trade
Practical considerations for implementing tax stamp and traceability programmes
Tax stamp specification and tendering
Design and integration issues
Independent studies in illicit trade – what is currently available and where are the gaps?
Trends in tax and customs administrations that are relevant to secure marking and traceability
Use and relevance of the international tax stamp standard.
If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send your 200-word abstract by 30 April 2023, to Nicola Sudan (Conference Director) at nicola@recon-intl.com, or use the form here.
And please also send any ideas for topics to the same address.
We look forward to hearing from you!
