Introducing the Comprehensive Liquor Tax Stamp in India: THTT

At the Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) 2024 conference held in Lisbon earlier this year, Dr Sajan Ambadiyil from the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), Government of Kerala, India, unveiled a new liquor tax stamp, the THTT (Taggant, Hologram, Track and Trace). The THTT represents a significant advancement in the State Excise Department’s efforts to combat illicit trade and protect excise revenue within the liquor industry.

For the reader’s information, while most tax stamps are used on tobacco products globally at the federal level, the situation is somewhat different in India, where almost all tax stamps in circulation are used on alcoholic beverages at the individual state level. According to estimates, over 25 departments use ca. 24 billion liquor tax stamps (labels) annually.