TANZANIA – Alcoholic beverages manufacturers of Tanzania have expressed their confidence in the proposal to introduce electronic tax stamps set to replace the paper stamps currently used, reported the Citizen.
The manufacturers said they were embraced with the government’s 2018/19 budget which gave provision to stop illegal production of liquors or those that could reach the market in a devious manner.
According to them, some manufacturers have cunningly been bringing some products in the market by using fake paper stamps, thus staging unfair competition for other products and brands that hold the genuine stamps.
The strategies by the government not only aim at efficient revenue collection but also curb illegal production of liquor.
“The introduction of electronic stamps is a good move in the right direction, it will help the government to collect more revenues from the sector since it will help to curb the influx of fake stamps which some unscrupulous use,” said the chief executive officer for Nyati Spiritz Limited, Ms Rupa Suchak.
She said the sector has been polluted by the influx of cheap products which are sold in the market with fake use fake excise duty stamps.
Tabling the about US$15bn budget, the Finance and Planning minister, Dr Philip Mipango said the new tax stamp system will enable the Government to use a modern technology to obtain production data on timely basis (real time) from the manufacturers.
Tanzania plans to introduce electronic tax stamps starting September 1, 2018.
With it, the government intends to curb revenue leakages and make it possible to determine in advance the amount of taxes that will be paid through Excise Duty, VAT and Income Taxes.
Protecting local industries
In a bid to protect the local industry and promote production of quality products, President Magufuli’s government has in the recent past slapped import duties on some product imports into the country.
Tanzania slapped a 25% import duty on Kenyan confectionery accusing Kenyan manufacturing firms of using imported zero-rated industrial sugar in the goods.
In the recent past, Tanzania and Uganda revenue bodies have accused Kenyan manufacturers spearheading unfavourable competition by using industrial sugar imported under a 10% duty remission scheme.
The move was replicated by Kenya’s long-time ally Uganda who rejected certificates of origin issued by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), opting for a 25% levy on imported chocolate, ice cream, biscuits and sweets.
