Businesses have welcomed with a condition the decision by Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to offer free stamps on the remaining stock as the authority fully implements excise tax stamps regime or Kalondola project.
In a statement, MRA commissioner general Daniel Daka said the implementation of the excise tax stamp regime extending the affixation of excise tax stamps from cigarettes to various excisable products as per the Customs and Excise Regulations 2024 is now in full effect.
He said the free stamps will be offered to ensure stocks that were either imported or manufactured prior to the deadline date would be stamped without affecting the implementation of the law.
Said Daka: “In line with the full roll out of the Kalondola regime and to ensure orderly clearance of old stock of unstamped products, MRA will offer free excise stamps to manufacturers, importers and distributors for stock acquired before the excise tax stamps regime rolled out.”
He said old unstamped stocks of products such as tobacco cigarettes, alcoholic beverages such as beers, wines, spirits, whisky, opaque beer and non-alcoholic beer will also be covered.
Daka said the free stamps will also cover stock acquired before July 1 2024 in respect of products under the second phase; namely bottled water, carbonated soft drinks, drinks made from cereals, energy drinks, fermented sweet tea, lotion and glycerine.
In an interview yesterday, Manufacturing Association of Malawi chairperson Gloria Zimba said the industry welcomes the move, but added that there are no concrete measures to guarantee protection of the formal industry from smuggling and counterfeit.
She said: “We will be watching the space because our interest is to make sure that the playing field is levelled, especially in terms of curbing smuggled products as well as some of the imports that were formally brought into the country but do not fully comply with the taxation laws.”
In a separate interview, Regina Osiman, a cross-border trader based in Mchinji District, welcomed MRA’s decision, saying some business operators have stocks in warehouses that were imported way back.
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs said reforms such as excise tax stamps are meant to protect the local industry, which is often competing with cheap products that find their way into the country without paying customs duty.
