SOUTH AFRICA
The Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa (TISA) says a rushed new system for tracking cigarettes, “track-and-trace marker technology” issued by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), would see a multi-billion tender awarded to a monopoly yet may fail to curb the ZAR8 billion illegal cigarette trade.
TISA said the new system would not address the main problem of illegal tobacco trade, which was cigarette volume verification at point of manufacture. François van der Merwe, TISA chairman, said SARS is attempting to implement a system in 12 months that has taken the EU and Ghana more than four years of consultation and trials to achieve.
Van der Merwe also said TISA was supporting track and trace systems which would address the most profitable aspect of the illicit trade and would ensure the legal tobacco sector makes inroads into one of the world’s worst illegal markets.
“These are complex, hi-tech systems that must be able to plug into the existing, as well as future technology used by SARS, retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers so data can be shared in real time,” said Van der Merwe. “Rolling out such a sophisticated, IT-intensive system requires enough time for preparation, consultation, and testing and TISA is concerned that the rushed process being followed by SARS has skipped these critical steps.”