Kenya: excise stamps required on all tobacco products
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), in reference to the Excise Duty Act 2016 and the “Excise Duty (Excisable Goods Management System) Regulations, 2017”, calls upon manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of any type of tobacco product to register with KRA and apply for excise stamps to affix on all tobacco products packages, including electronic cigarettes and cartridges, cigars, cigarillos, chewing tobacco, shisha and other manufactured tobacco and tobacco substitutes.
EGMS, through its requirement for an excise stamp, aims at deterring counterfeiting; this is possible through tracking of the stamps and excisable goods along the supply chain; enabling accounting for the production of excisable goods manufactured or imported; and facilitating any persons in the supply chain to authenticate the stamps and excisable goods.
These measures correspond to the requirements of Article 8 of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, and Article 15 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control itself, based on the recognition that “elimination of all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products, including smuggling, illicit manufacturing and counterfeiting, and the development and implementation of related national law, in addition to subregional, regional and global agreements, are essential components of tobacco control”.
After the ratification of the WHO FCTC in 2005, the Kenyan government worked continuously towards implementing legislative, administrative and technological tobacco control measures. Kenya has also signed the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products and is in the process of ratifying it. Kenya has also taken leadership in coordinating African countries during the negotiation of the Protocol, and already provided technical support in this area to many Parties.
In 2014 and 2015, Kenya won international awards from WHO and Tax Stamp Forum regarding the EGMS System.
More information is available from: Dorcas Kiptui, Tobacco Control Focal Point, Ministry of Health (email: djkiptui@gmail.com) and Muthaura E. Karambu, Head of EGMS Unit, Kenya Revenue Authority (email: Karambu.Muthaura@kra.go.ke).
Related links
http://www.mygov.go.ke/kenya-lauded-for-weeding-out-fakes-with-excisable-goods-management-system/
Excise Duty (Excisable Goods Management System) Regulations, 2017
http://www.who.int/fctc/mediacentre/news/2017/eu-debates-tracking-tracing-system/
http://www.who.int/fctc/mediacentre/news/2017/workshop-protocol-jordan/