Seychelles Trade portal Seychelles Trade portal

SeychellesTrade Portal

  • HomeHome
  • Goods
    • Trade Agreements
    • Import Procedures
    • Customs Valuation
    • Import Licensing/Permit
    • Sanitary & Phytosanitary Measures
    • Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
    • Tariff Regime & Internal Taxes
    • Goods Statistics
  • Services
    • Trade in Services Agreements
  • Trade-Related
  • Trade Related Legislation
    • Custom Management Act
    • Export Fishery Products Act
    • Anti-Money Laundering Act
    • Biosecurity Act
    • Bird Egg Act
    • Central Bank of Seychelles Act 2004
    • Coco de Mer Decree
    • Companies Ordinance Act
    • Consumer Protection Act
    • Copyright Act
    • Employment Act
    • Excise Tax Act
    • Financial Institutions Act
    • Food Act
    • Immigration Decree
    • Industrial Estate Act
    • Industrial Property Act
    • Licences Act
    • Procurement Act
    • Revenue Administration Act
    • Seychelles Investment Act
    • VAT Act
  • Enquiry & Notifications
    • Notification
    • SPS Enquiry
    • TBT Enquiry
  • Publications
  • Useful Links
  • Contact us

Withdrawal from the market of frozen vegetables from Belgium in relation to a multi country food-borne outbreak

Long term technical assistance...........

The Principal Secretary for Trade and the Trade Division is now based on the 2nd Floor, Maison Esplanade, Francis Rachel Street, Victoria.

Temporary restriction on importation of tomato and other relevant host from Sri Lanka.........

The National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of Seychelles imposed a temporary restriction on importation of Tomatoes.......

Seychelles accepts the 2005 protocol amending the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)......

Informing the general public of the migration process from versions 2007 to version 2017 of the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System......

Seychelles becomes the 161st WTO member...

Seychelles joins SADC FTA...

Informing the general public of changes on taxation of alcoholic beverages.

1
4
7
10
13
16
19
22
25
28
31
Home Excise Tax and Customs duty changes on alcoholic beverages
6 Jan 2015
backBack to News List

Excise Tax and Customs duty changes on alcoholic beverages

This press release serves to inform the general public of the changes to taxation of alcoholic beverages as per the commitments undertaken at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the recently announced changes in the 2015 budget speech.

As part of the accession process to the WTO, Seychelles was required to negotiate a market access offer, which would reflect its commitment to the membership on setting maximum tariff level that the country could apply on individual products (tariff binding). This negotiation was done at both the multilateral and bilateral level, where the latter involved the ceding of certain concessions that were imperative in order to move negotiations forward.

One of the area in which the country had to make certain concessions was with regards to alcoholic beverages, where the currently applied rates of duty were deemed too high for the country to accede with, especially noting that no other recently acceded members had managed to gain entry into the WTO with that level of duty. Consequently, Seychelles was required to reduce its applied tariffs on certain alcoholic beverages, where it opted to shift the amounts reduced by on Duty to Excise Tax.

Additionally, further to the 2015 budget announcement of a 20% increase in Excise Tax on alcoholic beverages having an alcoholic strength of 16% and above, Excise Tax on certain alcoholic beverages would thus incur a further increase.

However, whilst this may be perceived as a two-fold increase in Excise tax, in theory, there has been only a 20% general increase (considering Excise and Duty) given that Duty has been decreased by the same amount that Excise increased by initially to cater for WTO accession commitments.

Therefore it is important to reiterate that there has only been a 20 % increase in the general level of taxation on alcoholic products and that this only applies to alcoholic beverages whose alcoholic contents are 16% and above.  

The table below serves to provide a practical illustration of the changes.

Name of Product Excise Tax Rate 2014 Excise Tax Rate 2015 Customs Duty 2014 Customs Duty 2015
Fortified Wines (Dried Cherry) SCR80/1 SCR96/1 - -
Vodka SCR120/1 SCR144/1 SCR120/1 SCR120/1
Gin SCR120/1 SCR244/1 SCR120/1 SCR20/1
Whisky SCR120/1 SCR244/1 SCR120/1 SCR20/1
Rum SCR120/1 SCR144/1 SCR120/1 SCR120/1

 

Copyright © 2014 Trade Division Powered by WEB Seychelles