The paper excise stamps on a pack of cigarettes are being replaced by a digital code. According to market participants, this will allow manufacturers to save money, and it will be easier for regulators to identify counterfeit goods
On August 30, 2024, the Russian government approved transitional provisions on the labeling of tobacco products, which are necessary for the final transition to digital control of this market.
From September 1, the mandatory requirement to apply paper stamps to tobacco products is abolished. From this moment on, the main criterion for the legality of such a product will be a two-dimensional digital marking code in the Honest Mark system and, consequently, the availability of information about such products in the State Information System for Monitoring Goods (GIS MT). The relevant law was signed by President Vladimir Putin on August 8, 2024.
Obviously, a large-scale transition from paper stamps to digital ones cannot be carried out simultaneously. Therefore, Federal Law No. 325, which comes into force on September 1, provides for a transitional period of ten months — until July 1, 2025. At this time, it is allowed to manufacture and put into circulation tobacco products both with and without a paper stamp.
As explained to RBC in the Ministry of Finance, manufacturers of domestic tobacco products will be able to continue to apply previously obtained special stamps, but only until July 1, 2025. After this date, manufacturers and importers are required to release tobacco products into circulation only with a digital labeling code.
The territorial bodies of the Federal Tax Service accepted applications for the production of paper stamps until September 1, and it is planned to produce them before January 1, 2025. Goznak confirmed to the Ministry of Finance its readiness to provide the necessary number of manufacturers with stamps. "This will reduce costs for enterprises whose inventories of consumer packaging will not meet the requirements for such packaging without a special stamp," the Ministry of Finance noted.
From September 1, 2024, the Federal Customs Service must stop accepting and reviewing applications for the issuance of excise paper stamps for labeling imported tobacco products. In addition, by December 26, 2025, the Federal Customs Service must conduct an inventory of the remnants of excise stamps ordered by importers of tobacco products and, following its results, destroy them.
The national system of digital labeling "Honest Mark" has been introduced in Russia since 2019 to counter illegal trafficking of goods. At the moment, it covers 24 categories of goods, which account for almost 20% of the country's non-primary GDP. We are talking about such types of products as caviar, bottled water, soft drinks, tobacco, beer, shoes, dairy products, light industry goods, fur coats, tires, perfumes, cameras, medical devices, wheelchairs, antiseptics, dietary supplements and medicines. An experiment is being conducted on 15 more product groups, including children's goods, pyrotechnics and building materials. The Ministry of Finance estimates the total fiscal effect of labeling at 791 billion rubles.
Alexey Molodykh, Director General of the International Association for the Development of Marketplaces and Entrepreneurs (MARMP), notes that the large—scale introduction of labeling of individual product groups is a fundamentally new process in the accounting system for production and sales of products. In the tobacco segment, the government's initiative introduces a new term into the Tax Code — "accounting and control special brand". "It is she who will replace the paper excise tax, which is familiar to all smokers. In fact, it is a digital QR code containing information about the product and the manufacturer," he explains.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the share of illegal tobacco products in the Russian market is 11.3%. As Vladislav Zaslavsky, director of the Department of digital labeling of goods and legalization of product turnover at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, reported at the end of July 2024, a year earlier this figure was 13.3%.
After the introduction of digital labeling, Nikolai Titov, co-founder of the a.t.Legal law firm, is sure that it is easier for the state, primarily fiscal authorities, to control the turnover of tobacco products and, accordingly, the amount of proceeds from sales. Not a single pack of cigarettes can be sold without scanning the code, which was not required with a paper excise stamp, he emphasizes.
"Digital labeling systematically optimizes the work of both manufacturers and government agencies. Manufacturers receive data from the "Honest Mark", which allows them to improve their business processes. For the tax authorities, the innovation will significantly simplify the administration process: no longer need to spend resources on issuing, storing and issuing paper stamps to manufacturers and importers. With digital labeling, this happens automatically and online," explains Jan Vitrov, head of the office of the chief designer of the CRPT.
For manufacturers, switching to digital will allow them to save on the purchase of paper stamps. The cost of this was estimated by market participants at 2 billion rubles annually.
Olga Zhiltsova, Associate Professor of the Department of Logistics at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, PhD in Economics, believes that the obvious advantages of abandoning the excise stamp to the digital marking code will be indicated already in the transition period from September 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025.
In addition, digital labeling makes it possible for buyers themselves to participate in the process of controlling tobacco sellers through the Honest Sign mobile application. "If suddenly the buyer discovers a fake, he will be able to promptly report it to Rospotrebnadzor," she says.
The head of INFOLine Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, calls the digital system more reliable than the declarative one that operated before.
He and other experts do not expect difficulties for both the state and consumers against the background of the transition to a new labeling principle. Nikolay Titov recalls that business and the state have already accumulated sufficient experience in using digital technologies in other product groups, where controversial and ambiguous issues have been resolved, and digital technologies show their effectiveness. Thus, according to the CRPT, during the introduction of mandatory labeling, the clothing and textile market "turned white" by 33%, and the number of goods with genuine documents increased by 62%.
In addition, there is experience in the use of digital labeling of tobacco products in other EAEU countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. And, in particular, according to the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan, after the introduction of mandatory labeling of tobacco products, there has been an increase in the receipt of excise taxes — in 2023, compared with 2019, when the system began to be introduced, it amounted to 46.8% or 281 billion tenge for all types of tobacco (more than $582 million at the current exchange rate). At the same time, in 2022-2023, illegal tobacco products worth over 12 billion tenge (about $25 million) were detected in the country due to digital control.
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