The Ministry of Finance suggested starting an experiment in Russia on labeling imported alcohol. This was announced by Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov at the final meeting of the board of the Federal Service for the Regulation of the Alcohol Market (Rosalkogolregulirovanie) on Tuesday, April 27.
“We propose to launch, together with the Federal Customs Service of Russia, an experiment on the labeling of imported alcohol on the territory of Russia,” Sazanov said.
In July 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to conduct a pilot project on labeling alcohol with federal special and excise stamps using radio frequency (RFID tags. The department believed that the use of RFID technologies would reduce the operating costs of participants in the turnover of alcoholic beverages by optimizing internal processes, complicate the process fakes, since this will require expensive equipment and special skills.
For the implementation of the pilot project, they were going to use the production capabilities of PJSC “Micron”. The Ministry of Industry and Trade noted that the enterprise is the only Russian manufacturer of integrated circuits and full-cycle semiconductor products that has the necessary competencies. Mikron was not supposed to provide access to the Unified State Automated Information System, introduced in Russia in 2006 to account for the production of ethyl alcohol and alcohol.
However, the Ministry of Finance told Izvestia that the proposed labeling “will create additional costs for business, without increasing the effectiveness of state control in this area.”
On April 1, Russia began an experiment on the labeling of beer and drinks made on its basis, cider, poiret, mead and non-alcoholic beer. It will run until August 31, 2022. The experiment is being implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Service, the Federal Customs Service, Rosalkogolregulirovanie, Rospotrebnadzor, the Federal Accreditation Service and the FSB.
The operator is the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT). By 2024, Russia plans to create a unified national system for labeling and tracking goods.