The government is committed to a strong fight to combat illegal trade in tobacco products, as well as to the positive results achieved so far and the growth of excise revenue on these products, announced the Minister of Finance, Novica Vuković.
The government, he said, is also committed to further strengthening strategic measures in this area and modernizing the operations of tax and customs authorities.
Vuković and the Acting Director of the Customs Administration, Maja Vučinić, are participating in the regular annual Excise Stamps and Traceability Forum (TSTF), which is being held in Cape Town, at the invitation of the World Bank (WB).
"During the three-day forum, information and experiences are exchanged on the latest developments in excise stamp and traceability systems, as well as potential solutions to growing challenges that will enable countries to preserve significant revenues from excise products," the Ministry said in a statement.
Vuković and Vučinić actively participate in working sessions, and during a series of meetings, fiscal and excise policy was discussed.
During all discussions, the importance of further strengthening Montenegro's economic ties with the international community was emphasized.
The leading topic of this year's forum is the implementation and improvement of the excise stamp system, which serves as an efficient tool for monitoring and controlling tax obligations, as well as for strengthening the traceability of financial transactions of excise products (Track & Trace System).
In Cape Town, Vuković also participated in discussions and workshops focusing on new technologies, the digitalization of the tax system, and ways to improve cooperation between countries in the field of tax policy.
"The forum also discussed the possibilities of integrating the excise management system into the overall e-government platform, which integrates multiple services under one roof," the statement said.
The representative of the African Tax Administrations Forum (ATAF), Linstrom Marangu, chaired a panel discussion on this topic, analyzing why some countries still choose to keep their excise systems isolated and how solution providers can help them integrate.
The growing need to include raw materials, such as tobacco leaves, in a product traceability program, rather than just the finished product, was also analyzed.
In this context, the representative of the World Bank, Hana Ross, presented Poland's path towards regulating the raw tobacco market, including the use of excise stamps on dried tobacco.
It was also presented how, in the stamp and traceability sector, multiple technologies are simultaneously driving change: digitalization, the impact of artificial intelligence, and the potential of quantum computing.
The Cape Town forum brought together international representatives of government authorities responsible for implementing excise and customs policy, inspection bodies and police, regulators, manufacturers and distributors of cigarettes, alcohol and other excise products, as well as suppliers of authentication and serialization technologies and system integrators.
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