Cigarette products in Bahrain require digital stamps from October 16

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

All cigarette products available for sale, trading, supply, or possession in local markets must have digital stamps starting from 16 October 2022.

The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) confirmed the date of effectivity, the final phase of the Digital Stamps Scheme which will be applied to cigarette products in implementing the decision of the NBR’s Chief Executive No. (3) for the year 2022.

The NBR encourages all importers and traders in the local market to deal in appropriate quantities and to avoid the storage of large quantities of cigarette products without digital stamps to be cleared prior to the last phase goes into effect by 16 October 2022, where the sale, circulation, possession or supply of cigarettes without the digital stamps in local market will be prohibited.

Therefore, starting from this date, any product in the supply chain that does not have the digital stamp must be returned through the relevant supply chain to either be destroyed or moved for sale outside the territories of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

This is to ensure effective implementation starting from this date to avoid any violations through inspections or other operations conducted by the NBR, which requires taking further legal actions such as imposing administrative penalties or filing a criminal case for excise evasion.

This phase comes within a specific time plan that was effective with its first implementation phase on cigarette products as of 11 March 2022, where the system was made available to registered cigarette importers and local manufacturers.