Plans by the federal government to introduce and implement the tax stamp system or digital identifiers in the nation’s beer sector seem to be causing palpable fears among stakeholders, especially the three major brewing companies in the sector.
While the policy was designed primarily to ensure alcoholic drinks brewed in the country pay the required excise duties and that no foreign beer is smuggled in without payment of such duties, operators, however, fear the policy might have unintended consequences if eventually implemented.
Some of the operators, in separate chats with the Nigerian Tribune under anonymity, believed it might eventually raise the price of beer and other alcoholic beverages expected to pass through the system.
Explaining the workings of the system, one of the operators stated that it would require a tracking device to be installed by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in production plants where such products are being prepared.
He explained further that the device, to be installed by foreign engineers, would have to be monitored by men of the NCS in the plant.
‘One of the challenges here is the added operational costs likely to be incurred by the brewing companies, since the breweries are to see to the welfare of the men of the NCS expected to closely monitor the device at the plant.
‘Besides, they will also have to be responsible for the servicing of the device, which would require bringing the foreign engineers that installed the device into the country periodically. All these are extra costs likely to be passed down to the consumers at the end of the day,’ he stated.
The source also expressed the fear that production time may be disrupted whenever there are issues with the device, which the foreign engineers cannot promptly deal with.
‘It means everything would have to wait until such issue is sorted. You can imagine the impact of such delay on the production process of the company.
‘All of these are definitely coming at some costs likely to pass down to the final consumers, which simply means consumers in that market segment would have to pay more,’ he stated.