Starting next year, local alcohol manufacturers will be required to place quality stamps on their products, and a similar requirement has been proposed for beer products, a move the chairman of a beverage association said is “intended to protect drinkers.”

The proposal to stamp locally made alcohol products was made in a bid to ensure product quality, strengthen regulatory management, and prevent tax evasion, according to Bui Truong Thang, deputy head of the Light Industry Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The requirement will take effect January 1, 2014, and the ministry has considered applying it to beer as well, Thang told a meeting earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Beverage Association has strongly supported the beer stamping proposal, with its chairman, Nguyen Van Viet, asserting that the move will help “protect consumers and reduce tax losses.”

“Placing stamps on beer products will benefit all parties, the government, the manufactures, and consumers,” Viet told Tuoi Tre.

Imported wines have long been required to bear quality stamps, and locally made products should follow the same rule, he said.

“There are as many as 300 million liters of alcohol produced by unofficial and small facilities every year, while those made by licensed businesses are only 100 million liters, which means a huge tax loss for the state budget,” he said.

The government currently collects only VND500 billion worth of taxes from the alcohol manufacturing sector per year, a figure that will rise tenfold if the stamping regulation is applied, he said.

“If there are any complaints, they should be from manufactures, not consumers,” he concluded, adding that the stamping is essential, as there are cases in which people have died from drinking poor quality alcohol.

Viet also admitted that beer manufacturers will incur overrun expenses if they place stamps on both their bottle and can products.

“However, the overrun expense is modest compared to what businesses can gain from the stamps,” he said, adding that stamped products will help curb smuggled goods, thus “building up customers’ trust in the manufacturers.”

Viet suggested that Vietnam could learn from other countries such as Brazil, Turkey, and Morocco, which have advanced stamp printing technology.

“This will help reduce the printing cost for local businesses,” he said.