On 1 April, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) will launch its ‘Digital Tax Stamps’ (DTS) programme on cement and sugar. Initially introduced at the end of 2019 on domestic and imported beer, spirits, wine, soda, mineral water and tobacco products, the programme resulted in a 270% increase in the number of active taxpayers in the country.

In last month’s issue of Authentication News®, we looked at the tantalising prospect of combining the analytical capability and connectivity of a smartphone with the authenticating power of a hologram, touching on how reliance on end-user knowledge of hologram features could be alleviated by the use of smartphones to verify the holograms.

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.

An ongoing issue of concern to the tax stamp world has recently resurfaced. It refers to the use of the term ‘tax stamp’ to describe security features that have nothing to do with tax collection.

The Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has announced it will reverse the rules exempting export cigarettes from carrying tax stamps, after a legislator raised concerns that exports were entering the market as tax-free smuggled goods.

When Canada legalized cannabis in October 2018, the expectation was that cannabis would be a significant revenue generator right out of the gate.

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.

A recent webinar, entitled ‘How Non-Cloneable Codes Enable Supply Chain Automation and Credible Traceability,’ has raised contentious questions with regard to the use of physical security features and unique identifying codes as authentication tools.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is continuing to surpass its tax collection targets, despite a challenging economic environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local media reports.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Trade Minister, Paula Gopee-Scoon, has announced the development of an action plan, in collaboration with key trade-related agencies and the private sector, to address the problem of illicit trade, particularly in regard to tobacco and alcohol imports, reports looptt.com.

OneAgrix, an agriculture and halal food B2B e-commerce platform, and Switzerland-headquartered INEXTO – a cloud-based global tracking systems and brand protection solutions provider – have strategically partnered to facilitate a digital traceability solution for the fast-growing global halal industry.

First, we hear that the Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is on the point of awarding a track and trace contract for tobacco, sugar, cement, fertiliser and beverages to the highest scoring bidder in its latest tender. Then in the next breath, we learn that complaints have been received against the FBR over anomalies in the bid evaluation process.

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute – which describes itself as ‘a new generation of global not-for-profit foundation that ensures the world's brightest ideas find their way to materialise, scale and create positive sustainable impact on humanity’ – has entered into an agreement to combat counterfeit and illicit trade in Africa.

A comprehensive new e-library focusing on tobacco taxation and illicit trade has been launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Knowledge Hub at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP). A project two-and-a-half-years in the making, it is set to be a valuable resource for students, researchers and policymakers across the globe.

The European Union represents the world’s first attempt at implementation of wide-scale, multi-country tobacco traceability and the largest iteration of the FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (the Protocol) in action. The implications in relation to one of the world’s largest tobacco market’s interpretation and implementation of the Protocol, as well as the benefits that traceability can provide in terms of combatting illicit trade, has the significant potential to influence tobacco traceability the world over.

In last month’s Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, we launched a new series on the use of tax stamps and associated track and trace systems in different regions of the world, starting with Africa. This month, we shift the focus to the Middle East.

Smart packaging is an area that is pertinent to the interests of our community. It has links to track and trace, product labelling and interaction with the brand through technology. The aim of this article is to take a wider look at trends in smart packaging and consider some of the potential implications for tax stamps and track and trace solutions.

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)?

​At the beginning of January, the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), began a month-long training workshop on the procedures and processes leading to the implementation of excise tax stamps on several products sold on the Liberian market, reports LRA on its Facebook page.

The time has now come for us to be considering the changes that the current pandemic will make to our industry. The purpose of this article is to look at the reshaping of one particular technology with the intention of prompting a similar appraisal of others. It is does not attempt to identify all the solutions but to at least propose a framework for the questions.