Mozambique: Tax Authority pushing ahead with plans to impose fiscal stamps on beer

The Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) is pushing ahead with plans to impose fiscal stamps on bottled and canned beer, despite warnings from the drinks industry that the stamps may lead to a reduction, rather than an increase, in tax revenue, AllAfrica.com reported on May 2.

According to a report in the May 2nd issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", the AT will begin to test the technology next week.

Currently only one company produces beer in Mozambique, CDM (Beers of Mozambique), with breweries in Maputo, Beira and Nampula. Both CDM and the association of drinks producers (ABIBA) have warned of reduced revenue, if putting fiscal stamps on the final product reduces the speed of bottling.

The CDM production lines can fill between 60,000 and 120,000 bottles per hour. If adding the fiscal stamp slows down the line, then less beer will be produced, and less will be consumed.

CDM points out that only four countries in the world put fiscal stamps on beer, and all of them are Muslim-majority countries. Furthermore CDM is already one of Mozambique's major taxpayers, and nobody has ever accused it of tax evasion.

Last week, ABIBA predicted that, if fiscal stamps are imposed on beer, this will cut annual tax revenue from beer from eight billion to five billion meticais - a tax loss of three billion meticais (about 50 million US dollars, at current exchange rates).

The AT scoffed at this prediction, and claimed that, since a digital rather than a physical stamp will be used, here will be no slow-down in production.

The AT's southern regional coordinator for fiscal stamps, Rogerio Machava, insisted "this process will not cause any constraints for the operators. It was they who suggested that we use a digital stamp, and the AT is working to satisfy this request from the operators".

When the digital stamp is tested next week, said Machava, the operators will see how it works, and whether it does indeed create any problems for beer production.

Physical fiscal stamps have already been imposed on tobacco products and on wines and spirits, and the AT claims they have significantly increased revenue from these products. But the production process is very different, and no major problems have been found in slapping fiscal stamps on wines and spirits, most of which are imported.

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