Tanzania rolls out app to authenticate tax stamps on liquor

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has started using a mobile phone app to verify the authenticity of tax stamps on bottles of spirits, according to local news reports.

The app is being trialled in the Kilimanjaro region in response to concerns that bottles with counterfeit tax stamps may be circulating in the market, reports TheCitizen.co.tz. It says there are suspicions that counterfeit stamps are being bought by traders and sold on to illicit alcohol producers.

Tanzania started deploying electronic tax stamps (ETS) on cigarettes, wines, spirits, beer, and all kinds of alcoholic beverages in 2019, and extended their use to sweetened flavoured water and other non-alcoholic beverages, like energy and malt drinks and soda, later that year.

In November of 2020, the rollout was extended even further to include fruit and vegetable juices, bottled water, and music and films on digital media.