The IT and printing company AKD, Croatian national ID issuer, also prints tax and excise stamps
Croatian IT and printing company AKD has introduced a new design of tobacco stamps that is fully aligned with the 2014/40/EU Directive. The tobacco stamp is a type of tax and excise stamp that identifies tobacco products, they are high security products produced by AKD for the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia Customs Administration.
Directive 2014/40/EU established that all unit packaging of tobacco products sent to the market must carry a security feature that protected them from unauthorized use. This feature consists of visible and invisible authentication elements, that enable verification whether the tobacco products are original and genuine. The directive sets the limits of the area on the individual packaging of tobacco products where a tobacco stamp may be applied. That is the reason why new tobacco stamps are produced in a smaller dimension.
The technical standards for the safety features system are set out in Commission Implementing Decision 2018/576 of 15 December 2017 on technical standards for the safety features to be placed on tobacco products. Along with the dimensions change, AKD has also improved the safety and technical features of the product.
In addition, as the national ID issuer of the Republic of Croatia, AKD has received the company's International Identification Number in accordance with ISO / IEC 15459. By acquiring the company ID number, AKD met one of the requirements of the European Commission set out in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/574 on technical standards for the establishment and operation of tobacco traceability systems.
AKD is currently the only ID issuer in the EU with a fully operational technical solution for traceability of tobacco products. According to the EU Directive, traceability systems of tobacco products have to be introduced in EU Member States by 20 May 2019, and therefore, AKD offered its solution to other countries.