Metrc, the leading provider of cannabis regulatory technology systems to US state governments, has announced a new contract with the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognised Native American tribe located in Southern California. This represents the first ever track and trace contract with a tribal government.

In the May 2024 issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, we described how a white paper published by an informal EU parliamentary working group on tobacco products had highlighted the permeability of some European Commission departments to tobacco industry lobbying. The paper raised concerns that such permeability was causing delays in the revision of two important tobacco regulations: one on taxation and one on traceability.

Following a tender process launched in 2022, the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance has recently introduced a new excise stamp management directive.

Researchers in China have developed a method for identifying counterfeit cigarettes, based on the stable isotope profiles of the tobacco contained within them.

Reconnaissance International has unveiled a new industry reference glossary, containing over 700 sector-specific terms and definitions.

At the end of April, Gelmer Leibbrandt, Managing Director of Royal Joh Enschedé, signed a new contract with the Dutch Customs Authority for the printing of tobacco tax stamps, thereby continuing a service that has already lasted for over 100 consecutive years.

At the Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference in April, Michael Natan, President of Diametryx Inc, presented this new company’s intriguing colour-change particles for use as an overt security feature.

In a recent Ukrainian National News (UNN) article, Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, described the steps taken by the institute to identify smuggled cigarettes and counterfeits of well-known brands, with tax stamps featuring high on the list of elements to check.

As of 31 May, Chile’s largest beverage company, CCU, will increase consumer prices on nectars, hypotonic and isotonic drinks, by 9%, to absorb a change in the calculation of value-added tax on non-alcoholic drinks. The change was announced in April by the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII), Chile’s tax authority.

A new labelling technology that prints a QR code directly onto food such as fruit has been developed by a team of researchers in South Korea, according to an announcement by the country’s Ministry of Science and ICT.

Between October-December 2023, the UK Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA) commissioned a nationwide poll of 12,000 smokers on their attitudes, awareness and understanding of illegal tobacco. This is the ninth year this survey has been carried out.

In 2023, an informal EU parliamentary working group on tobacco products, led by French MEPs Anne-Sophie Pelletier, Pierre Larrouturou and the late Michèle Rivasi, organised a number of roundtables to discuss how the permeability of some European Commission departments to tobacco industry lobbying was causing delays in the revision of two important regulations (see TSTN July 2023).

Xeikon, a provider of digital printing presses, has partnered with KURZ and SCRIBOS (part of the KURZ group) to offer a solution that enables digital label printers to combine variable metallic elements, serialised QR codes with embedded copy-protection patterns, and interactive features… all in a single printing pass.

Reconnaissance International (publisher of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ – TSTN) has announced that the 2024 Holography Conference Online (THCO) will be held on 12-13 November. The call for papers is now open, and delegates are invited to submit a proposal to present by 13 September 2024.

In this month’s interview with a member of the International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA), we delve into Thailand’s tax stamp and security printing market courtesy of Chanwanich CEO Ronnachai Kongboonma, exploring how the nation’s industry has developed over the past century and how it’s likely to evolve in the coming years.

Although this article concerns ongoing problems with the counterfeiting of postage stamps, some of these stamps now carry a combination of physical and digital features common to tax stamps. Our industry may therefore be interested in recent developments around the counterfeiting of these ‘new-age’ postage stamps.

The liquor industry in India is a major source of excise revenue that needs protecting against non-compliance and illicit trade. To this end, two decades ago, the Indian state of Kerala introduced hologram- embedded security tax labels on Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL).

Work will soon begin on preparing the programme for the next Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™, which will take place from 7-9 April 2025, in Cape Town, South Africa.

In our third 2024 interview with a member of the International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA), we speak to Marietta Ulrich- Horn, Co-Founder and CEO of Securikett.

Depending on who you ask, Panama – which recently played host to the COP9 meeting of parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) – is either a best-in- class example of a country using tobacco controls to excellent effect, or the world’s biggest hub for illicit cigarette trade.