(4th June 2020); The Ministry of Customs and Revenue (‘MCR’) wishes to inform the general public that the Olioli Wine manufactured and distributed by Skyline Co Ltd is confirmed to be classified as a wine under Customs international standards given the fermentation method been used to produce the wine from rice.
It is categorized and coded accordingly under tariff line 2205.9020 in the World Customs Organization’s 2017 Harmonized System Tariff as adopted under legislation by Samoa.
The alcohol product from fermenting of rice is then mixed by the manufacturer with flavours such as coke, lemon, pineapple, grape and strawberry.
The alcohol content in the Olioli Coke Wine is 8% while the Olioli Lemon Wine, Olioli Pineapple Wine, Olioli Grape Wine, and Olioli Strawberry Wine contained 13% alcohol.
These alcohol contents of 8% and 13% of the Olioli wine products are confirmed from yearly analysis tests been conducted by the Scientific Organisation of Samoa (SROS) upon referrals from the MCR, with the recently one been analysed and issued by SROS on 19th March 2020.
Furthermore, these olioli wine products have been issued with a Health Compliance Certificate from the Ministry of Health having met the Health requirements under the Food Act 2015 and the Health Ordinance 1959.
The recent certificate been issued is dated 06th August 2019.
All these documents from SROS and MOH were thoroughly assessed as conformity to these organizations’ legal requirements and were considered by the Liquor Board under the requirements of the Liquor Act 2011, before the approval was granted by the Liquor Board and issued license to Skyline Co. Ltd to manufacture these alcoholic wine products.
Therefore, the MCR herein confirms that the product is a ‘wine’ and not a ‘beer’ as incorrectly classified by the TV1 News on Wednesday 03rd June 2020.
This is also to advise the public that we have investigated the issue of ‘fake’ receipts been issued by the company to some of its clients/retailers and have accordingly confirmed the practice to have been done.
The company is now been heavily penalized under the provisions of the Customs Act 2014 and the Excise Tax (Domestic) Act 1984 and is now been closely monitored and audited by the Inland Revenue Services on issues relating to its tax matters.
Due to confidential provisions of the Tax and Customs legislations, the Commissioner/Comptroller is not at liberty to disclose any specific tax information to the public.
This is also to convey our heartfelt appreciations to all those businesses who had reported this illegal practice which prompted our investigation on this company.
Please rest assured that MCR is committed to administer the requirements of our Tax and Customs legislations which mandated our functions to impose and collect tax and duty revenues from our customers, in an equitable, correct, transparent and accountable system that encourages voluntary compliance from all our stakeholders/customers.
With limited resources to monitor and police the non-compliance of some businesses, we appreciated the team work from the public and will urge for this practice to continue whenever you have evidence of any suspected illegal business activity been done.
Faafetai lava,
Matafeo Avalisa Viali-Fautua’alii
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MINISTRY OF CUSTOMS & REVENUE
