Gov’t To Ban Products Without Tax Stamps

Government has announced that products without tax stamps will be tagged as counterfeit and evacuated from the market beginning next year.

The decision is in respect of the implementation of the Tax Stamp Policy by government which takes effect January 2018.

Mr. Kwaku Kwarteng, Deputy Minister for Finance who was speaking at a Tax Stamp Policy sensitization workshop in Accra yesterday, said the introduction of the tax stamp policy was necessary to check importation of counterfeit products.

“Products such as cigarettes and other tobacco products, alcoholic beverages whether bottled, canned, non- alcoholic carbonated beverages, and bottled water are required to be stamped when the implementation begins next year”, he stressed.

Gov’t Absorbs Stamp Cost

He said the cost in affixing the stamp has been absolved by government, hence the stamp will be provided to manufacturers and importers at no cost for the first six months.

According to him, the policy will encourage tax compliance while protecting the consuming public against harmful and unwholesome products.

The excise tax stamp among others requires manufacturers to affix stamps on all excisable products.

Mr. Kwarteng therefore urged the public to report to authorities if they come across a product without tax stamp, when the initiative takes off next year.

Chairman of the Tax Stamp Implementation Committee, Mr. Akwasi Yankyera, in a presentation said the tax stamps are small stickers with security features, supplied by government to manufacturers and importers to be affixed on their products before they are released onto the market.

“The tax stamp incorporates certain features that makes it impossible for a counterfeit to be produced”, he said.

The stamp has security features such as tamper evident slits, color shift ink, microprint, grilloche, ten-digit alpha numeric serial number, and bar codes.

“The stamp has a very strong admissive which makes it very difficult to be removed when fixed. We have also provided special gadgets that will be used to verify stamps on products”, he stressed.

According to him, this initiative will help the GRA identify fake products on the market.

Source: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum/ thePublisher