New Tender for Nepal Tax Stamps

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) of Nepal has issued a fresh global tender for excise tax stamps for tobacco, spirits, wine, beer and cider, reports The Kathmandu Post. A tender notice was issued on 14 October and all participants have until 29 November to submit their bids.

There is currently an acute shortage of tax stamps in Nepal, given that the company that was supposed to be supplying the stamps (Perum Peruri) was unable to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the ‘second-best’ company, identified from the previous tender, was not offered the contract in Perum Peruri’s stead due to alleged technical issues.

As a temporary measure to address the shortage, the IRD has called upon a domestic printer, Janak Education Material Centre, to print nearly 100 million stickers. This is the first time in more than two decades that a local printer has been used to print the stamps, given that high-security stamps were needed that could only be provided outside of Nepal.

The centre usually prints text books for government schools, as well as ballot papers for elections. Although its aim is to print the stamps with an acceptable level of security features based on whatever equipment and materials it has available, a spokesperson for the centre nevertheless conceded that ‘we cannot ensure all the security features that existed with the stickers printed abroad’.

The technical specifications required by the fresh new tender are similar for both tobacco and alcohol products and include:

• Paper-based stamps in UV-dull paper (with cigarette stamps to be provided without adhesive and alcohol stamps to be pressure-sensitive self-adhesive) with 3mm visible and invisible fluorescent security fibres 

• Minimum of five-colour offset printing incorporating linewidth modulation, guilloche pattern and microtext

• A covert mark verified by a x10 magnifying lens, and infrared ink printed on the left side of the stamp

• Invisible taggant ink with bespoke wavelength placed in central part of stamp and detected with a special device

• Serial number on each stamp printed in black, along with a unique QR code (which doesn’t appear to have been on previous stamps) containing encrypted data relating to stamp type, serial number and other technical details 

• Special text printed with red/green bi-fluorescent ink

• A copper holographic stripe applied to the right side of the stamp (like the previous versions), comprising microtext and the Nepal government logo.

It is now to be hoped that this new tender will lead to a satisfactory outcome, given that the current situation, where the security of the stamps may potentially be compromised, needs to be rectified as soon as possible.