Togo Reports Significantly Higher Excise Collections

Following the implementation of its automated marking system in September 2020, the Togolese revenue authority, l’Office Togolais des Recettes (OTR), has reported a substantial increase in excise collections.

In addition, the authority reports that the system has allowed many economic operators to be identified and has given those operators the ability to regularise their tax situation. Furthermore, a foundation for healthy competition between operators has been restored.

According to the OTR, before the deployment of the system, taxes were being evaded at an alarmingly high rate with regard to tobacco product imports, with tax evasion on beer imports being even higher.

The system, which is provided by SICPA, and known as SAM (Solution Automatisé de Marquage), is an automated production monitoring, secure fiscal marking and traceability programme, implemented on tobacco products, spirits, wine, beer, soft drinks (including juices) and bottled water, for the purpose of simplifying and increasing tax collections, distinguishing compliant products from illicit ones, identifying the origin of products, and promoting legitimate business practices.

SAM involves the application of either paper-based tax stamps or directly applied secure tax marks (depending on the type of product to be marked) on unit-level items.

It was the first system of its kind to be introduced by a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which comprises eight countries including Togo. In addition to Togo, six other WAEMU countries are party to the WHO FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which obliges them to implement secure track and trace on tobacco products by September 2023. But with 18 months to go before such a system must be put in place, four WAEMU countries (Benin, Mali, Niger and Senegal), have yet to implement any kind of system at all.