As part of an ongoing countrywide campaign by the Rwanda Revenue Authority in collaboration with different government agencies to promote EBM usage, businesses are urged to purchase from trusted wholesalers to ensure their goods have tax stamps.

These tax stamps provided by the law establishing excise duty are affixed to tobacco, liquors, and wines. For alcohol, these stamps are established in different colors, considering local production or exportation and the containing milliliters.

In the ongoing campaign, there have been issues observed such as liquors and wines without tax stamps, or products with tax stamps intended for other items. This indicates they have entered the market illegally. At that time, an EBM invoice cannot be issued.

A seller who was caught selling alcoholic drinks without tax stamps and others with forged tax stamps confessed to the malpractice and said he has learned a lesson.

"RRA officials came for inspection to ensure that my products meet all the required standards, and unfortunately, they found out that some liquors have tax stamp colors related to other bottles. Sometimes tax stamps for smaller bottles have been allocated to larger ones,” he said.

To verify the tax stamp, you can scan it, and each QR code will have its own specified data embedded in it. This includes the name of the manufacturer/importer, product details, and tax stamp details including the activation date.

Assistant Commissioner in charge of Taxpayers Services and Communications, Jean Paulin Uwitonze, has called on traders to make good use of tax stamps as one of the prerequisites for the proper use of EBM. It is a system that has increased transparency in businesses, showing purchases entering stocks, sales, and related costs, enhancing accuracy in tax declarations.

For income tax, EBM is important to support deductibles from taxable income. However, some businesses haven’t responded to the call to properly use tax stamps.

"We have noticed several products that are usually seized, and we start looking for where those products came from. Sometimes we find that those so-called tax stamps that they used didn’t come from our systems, and to be clear, no genuine tax stamp was put on liquor, wine, or tobacco that isn’t traceable to see key details of the product, including the importation date, tax stamp’s code, or quantity of the related bottle,” he said.

"With this in mind, it would be mistaken to say that when people come, they will see the tax stamp and that is all. There is a system to scan the stamp and verify its authenticity. Those malpractices are used, but it is unfortunate,” he added.

When a liquor bottle, whiskey, or wine bottle has no tax stamp, it means that it hasn’t entered the tax system, indicating it was smuggled into the market, and the seller cannot issue a related EBM invoice.

To incentivize EBM usage, the government recently approved a 10% reward on the value-added tax paid on each invoice. If a consumer is denied an EBM invoice and informs the tax administration, they are eligible for an additional reward equivalent to 50 % of penalties paid. 

As provided by the law establishing the excise duty, any domestic manufacturer or importer of products subject to excise duty who fails to affix tax stamps to products, use tax stamps on products for which they are not intended, or sell products subject to excise duty without tax stamps, commits an offense. 

Upon conviction, he or she is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than 6 months and not more than 1 year or to a fine of not less than 1,000,000 Rwandan francs and not more than 2,000,000 Rwandan francs. RRA urges the final consumers to ensure that the goods they purchase have the intended tax stamps, and will be assured that the products have been inspected before entering the market.

On locally produced bottles that are less than 500 ml in size, blue tax stamps are affixed, while for those that are larger than 500 ml, green tax stamps are affixed. For imported bottles that are less than 500 ml in size, orange tax stamps will be affixed, and for those larger than 500 ml, pink tax stamps will be affixed.