Illicit alcohol continues to flood the Zambian market, losing the country an estimated US$145.5 million in unpaid taxes in 2017 alone.
More than two-thirds of the alcohol sold during the period under review, was made by illegitimate unregistered suppliers, according to a new report released by Euromonitor International Consulting of the United Kingdom.
The study, whose objective was to understand the extent of the illicit alcohol trade in seven selected African countries, including Zambia, was undertaken at the request of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the parent company of Zambian Breweries.
Illicit alcohol trade, according to the report, poses a substantial health threat to consumers, while the negative economic consequences for alcoholic drinks companies and governments are equally considerable.
Euromonitor identified that the loss to the Treasury had increased threefold since the last survey in Zambia in 2014, when it identified a fiscal loss of more than US$50 million to government through smuggling and unpaid taxes.
Some 70 percent of the alcohol sold is now illicit, compared with 40 percent in 2014.
“This report makes worrying reading,” said Zambian Breweries country director Jose Moran. “We appeal to government to enforce existing legislation that will prosecute people involved in the illicit alcohol business as government is losing substantial amounts of money through the illicit alcohol trade. This will help curb negative health and social effects brought about by tujilijili and junta.”
The report explained that cheap, unregulated packaged spirits have moved away from sachets, which are now banned, to smaller sized bottles of 200ml adding that the majority of the distilleries making these are unregistered producers and are not paying tax.
Only an estimated 30 percent of local spirits production in Zambia in 2017 were traceable to legitimate, registered manufacturers representing a significant fiscal loss to the state.
According to the study, Market Analysis for Illicit Alcohol in sub-Saharan Africa, smuggling of packaged products into Zambia from Namibia at the Katima Mulilo border is the largest contributor to fiscal loss, with spirits and wine showing high levels of smuggling in 2017.
The report observes that the smuggling of alcohol from Namibia occurs through containerized vehicles. Contents are typically declared as fish and other perishables that are tax-free.
The report exposed Lusaka’s Comesa Market as a significant hub for illicit alcohol distribution but to a far less extent compared with 2014, due to the cholera clean-up from September 2017.
The report findings highlighted townships such as Matero, Mandevu and Chilenje in Lusaka as “competing” with Comesa Market in distributing smuggled alcohol and other illicit products.
The Euromonitor market analysis noted, however, that there had been an increase in government lobbying to strengthen the regulation of illicit alcohol, mainly because of alcohol-related abuse.
The report justifies part of government’s drive as health-related, citing interventions made during the cholera outbreak in 2017 that compelled government to intervene in alcohol consumption in urban compounds, epicentres of disease in peri-urban areas, and shut down outdoor trade.
Mr. Moran said Zambian Breweries will continue to collaborate with government and other stakeholders to enhance the National Alcohol Policy’s vision of having a nation free from the negative social, health, and welfare consequences of alcohol abuse in the population, in order to enhance national development.
I dont drink, smoke or sleep outside my boyfriend and don do drugs
Be like me , I challenge you
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Have we all become out of touch with this nation like mushota, if this research is true am worried for us , not for the revenue lost but how we become numb ,such that people from a distance are noticing things going wrong and we can’t, social cash transactions it had to take a foreign organization to wake us up,now another foreign organization is saying we are losing revenue through illegal liquor trade.
@Mushota, what do you mean you don’t “sleep out side” your boyfriend? You “sleep in him”, how do you enter him? I thought you don’t have right tool for penetrating?
It is made in Animo Farm in Namwala.
A poorly performing economy creates conducive environments for bucakolwa, ublalelale, no bupupu. We know who has our money
No thanks
Too many drunks in Zambia, that’s why the illegal market of alcohol is thriving. Like I mentioned in a post a while back, we increase taxes on every thing except alcohol, in other countries the sin tax is increased every year, secondly when there was cholera in the country all businesses were shut down but bars were allowed to operate. cant really be surprised that we have a problem with Illicit alcohol.
The money in Counterfeit Alcohol is rivaling that of drugs. Consumers must report illicit bottles to local authorities and to ****Government and industry must increase resources for enforcement and educate the public to have a chance at reducing this problem.
I think they have included all the traditional beer, munkoyo, seven days, kachasu etc etc in their survey to come up with such a big amount.
I am never drinking beer in Zambia again, I will come with my own alcohol thank you.
Fact;
That is a file photo of Jona Chakolwa’s bottle store in Chawama before he became President.
The chaos & disorganisation in there shows you why Zambia has been heading down the tubes.